Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: I think this book may hold the record for most quickly becoming indispensible to me. It contains concise, single paragraph histories of the backgrounds of 8,000 words in our language. One thing I really enjoy about it is the way it combines presentations of the most common, everyday words with the coolest, most interesting ones. Offhand, one of my favorite words would have to be the word "guitar." Did you know that the word guitar started out as the Greek word "kithara," and came to English by means of two separate routes? On the one hand, it passed directly through Europe, by way of the Roman Empire, becoming "cithara" in Latin and then "citole" in Middle English. On the other hand, it went through North Africa with the Muslims as a "qitar" in Arabic, then into Spanish by way of the Moors as "guitarra," then into French as "guitare," then finally into English as "guitar." (A citole, by the way, for all you non-Chaucer fans out there, was a medieval stringed instrument that we no longer have with us.) That's just one word. There are 7,999 more entries like that, and all of them are amazing. This book is so worth the money it isn't even funny. Two million thumbs up.
Rating: 
Summary: Average
Review: No real new or special contributions. One can find same information in many other books.
Rating:
Summary: Great For Word-Clearing
Review: Since buying this book I use it continually to get a real conceptual understanding. Its derivations are vastly better than most dictionaries and written in simple English with almost no symbols. Yesterday I used it to clear the derivation of "manifest" as in "manifestation of the misunderstood word" and the room brightened up. Some other really good derivations were "mandarin" and "daughter". Recommend it thoroughly as a study and word-clearing tool. ARC,
Simon
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is a wonderful book! It is indispensable to students or anyone who reads books that have been written in the past, or for those with a curious nature.
The dictionary is in alphabetical order with stories of how each word came into the English language and has evolved over time.
For example:
Alcohol - Originally, alcohol was a powder, not a liquid. The word comes from Arabic al-kuhul, literally `the kohl'--that is, powdered antimony used as a cosmetic for darkening the eyelids. This was borrowed into English via French or Medieval Latin, and retained this `powder' meaning for some centuries (for instance, `They put between the eyelids and the eye a certain black powder made of a mineral brought from the kingdom of Fez, and called Alcohol,' George Sandys, Travels 1615). But a change was rapidly taking place: from specifically `antimony,' alcohol came to mean any substance obtained by sublimation, and hence `quintessence.' Alcohol of wine was thus the `quintessence of wine,' produced by distillation or rectification, and by the middle of the 18th century alcohol was being used on its own for the intoxicating ingredient in strong liquor. The more precise chemical definition (a compound with a hydroxyl group bound to a hydrocarbon group) developed in the 19th century.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable etymology
Review: Very fine work, although at around 8000 words the book is certainly not an exhaustive reference. I use it to supplement my Chambers Etymology along with several other word histories. What it lacks in quantity it makes up in quality. The British spelling is a bit annoying at times but that is a minor gripe. The book is a wonderful "browser" as well as a practical reference. Overall, a must-have for any English etymology enthusiast. I was fortunate to locate a (mint) hardcover edition and I find that format much more durable and pleasing to use than a paperback.
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