By the same author: The Story of English Symbols The 25 Rules of Grammar First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Michael O’Mara Books Limited 9 Lion Yard Tremadoc Road London SW4 7NQ Copyright © Michael O’Mara Books Limited 2018 All rights reserved You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-78243-891-5 in hardback print format ISBN: 978-1-78243-899-1 in ebook format www.mombooks.com Contents Introduction A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Introduction When I was young, really young, my parents were worried there was something wrong with me because I didn’t speak very much When I did speak I was afflicted with an overt stammer The words I wanted to say just couldn’t be spoken quickly enough, the thoughts that I had couldn’t be expressed exactly, or nearly exactly, how I wanted them to be In short, I didn’t have the words to say what I wanted to say Hence, I fell silent, withdrew into an internal world, until I learned to read and discovered more words and ways to hide my stutter I’ve been involved in the meaning of language (and the language of meaning) for well over half my life In order for a language to function it needs two components: a vocabulary and a grammatical structure Grammar is sexy in my opinion, a puzzle and a trick, smoke and mirrors maybe? Vocabulary is far more mundane, possibly? After all, it is only words? Right? Wrong! The beautiful thing about the English language is that it is the most expressive and descriptive language in the world English absorbs words, like a giant sponge; words from all different cultures that it chews up, swallows and spews out again in different forms; it’s a Leviathan, the Kraken, a ravenous Hydra – basically it’s a monster, but a beguilingly beautiful beast So how do you choose a thousand words from this linguistic maelstrom? Well, I hold my hands up and confess my decisions were partly based on words I like, partly on words I had no idea what they meant and partly on words I thought sounded cool and interesting There are thousands more out there swimming around in the whirlpool waiting to be hooked out, so please don’t take this as an exhaustive list by any means It has been an interesting journey There are lots of words in this book which I have been using erroneously, ‘mordant’ being one of many Equally fascinating are the peculiarities of common speech: ‘I locked myself out of my house last week but happily my neighbour has a spare key.’ Actually, my neighbour did not appreciate being woken up at 3 a.m to give me the spare key at all and so didn’t happily let me get into my house Haply (fortuitously/luckily) my neighbour has a spare key to my house, but who would notice the difference? But there is a difference in meaning and that is important Ambiguity is the enemy of truth and meaning and therefore, rather worryingly, general understanding It’s a slight point, maybe, but worth considering nonetheless Increasingly, we live in a world of ‘fake news’ and ‘the post-truth epoch’, and thus the necessity to express what we really want to say is of paramount importance; to speak, write and communicate as clearly, concisely and correctly as we can And for that we need the right words It is to be hoped this little book may help in some small way Joseph Piercy A Aberrant: If something is aberrant it is deviating in some fashion or manner from the norm Aberrant is a direct borrow from the Latin word aberrāns, meaning to go astray A secondary meaning relates to behaviour, specifically bad behaviour or behaviour considered out of character or abnormal Such aberrant behaviour will not be tolerated Abet: To encourage or assist another in the fulfilment of an action or (often illegal) activity She was charged by the police with aiding and abetting a bank robbery Abeyance: In English the word abeyance can be used in technical legal language and in a more generalized manner Disputes over the contents of a will, for example, may cause a property or title to be placed in abeyance, meaning waiting to be claimed by a rightful heir or owner Future plans can also be in abeyance if they are dependent upon the outcome of a change in future circumstances We had to put our plans for a camping trip in abeyance due to a sudden change in the weather forecast Abjure: To abjure is to reject, renounce or forswear a belief, practice or opinion The word shares the same Latin root jurare, meaning to swear an oath, as perjury and jury and hence has its groundings in law It is possible of course to casually abjure any formerly held belief or opinion, but in the Middle Ages if the Spanish Inquisition demanded someone abjure from ungodly practices or beliefs it usually meant being tortured or burned at the stake Not to be confused with adjure (see below) He abjured his devotion to soccer when it became so expensive to attend matches Abnegate: A verb that shares its Latin roots with several other words, all of them in denial Negare means to deny or refute and the word abnegation began to appear in English as early as the fourteenth century It was, however, several hundred years before abnegate appeared as a verb This is an example of retroactive word formation, as it is natural to assume that the act of denying ... In short, I didn’t have the words to say what I wanted to say Hence, I fell silent, withdrew into an internal world, until I learned to read and discovered more words and ways to hide my stutter I’ve been involved in the meaning of language (and the language of... They absconded with the weekly bar takings and fled to Spain Abstemious: The words abstemious and abstain are often thought to be synonymous but in fact they derive from different Latin roots To be abstemious is to deny oneself the joys of intoxicating drinks as the Latin root... wait with ‘bated breath’, which means becalmed anticipation or excitement The verb to bait is to try to make angry with criticism or insults, or to entice into a situation such as an argument or dispute The verb abate is similar in meaning to the now scarcely used ‘bate’ in that it has the sense of to reduce in