![]() ![]() In fact, if English purists during the Renaissance had their way, we would now be using Old English compounds such as "flesh-strings" for "muscles" and "bone-lock" for "joint." You'll be surprised to learn that the impulse to conserve "pure English" is nothing new. revel in new terms, such as "musquirt," "adorkable," and "struggle bus."Įnglish is an omnivorous language and has borrowed heavily from the many languages it has come into contact with, from Celtic and Old Norse in the Middle Ages to the dozens of world languages in the truly global 20th and 21st centuries.expand your vocabulary by studying Greek and Latin "word webs" and.find out how words are born and how they die.survey the borrowed words that make up the English lexicon.discover the history of the dictionary and how words make it into a reference book like the Oxford English Dictionary.Professor Curzan approaches words like an archaeologist, digging below the surface to uncover the story of words, from the humble "she" to such SAT words as "conflagration" and "pedimanous." Discover the secrets behind the words in our everyday lexicon with this delightful, informative survey of English, from its Germanic origins to the rise of globalization and cyber-communications. From new words such as "bling" and "email" to the role of text messaging and other electronic communications, English is changing all around us.
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