This title is an eye-opening tour of the English language through the ages. Feat
uring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient word ('lo
af') to cutting edge ('twittersphere') and spanning the indispensable words that
shape our tongue ('and', 'what') to the more fanciful ('fopdoodle'), Crystal ta
kes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure and the do
wnright surprising. In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous la
nguage, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the
huge variety of sources influences and events that have helped to shape our ver
nacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth
century ('roe', in case you are wondering).
