Since I was a kid, I have loved books like this: mystery/adventures in linguistics. Like those language collections from the Funks, this presents seemingly endless sidelines into the origins, meanings, changes, and misuses of words. Amazing fun and very interesting. Always love stumbling over texts like this in my literary rambles. ( )

Affascinanti esplorazioni del significato e dell'origine di parole e modi di dire. John Ciardi, americano, è stato poeta, critico, scrittore e traduttore di Dante.
Segnalato da Anna Ravano

Great fun. Almost every entry is documented from literary use, both English and other. Often witty. Fun to browse; great bathroom reading. ( )