The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories

Rating:
Summary: completely redundant
Review: Almost every entry here is a straightforward, unimaginative transcription of the short etymology feature included in ANY dictionary of the English language. A typical entry in this book reads (in full): "Slander: Slander is from Old French esclandre, an alteration of escandle, from late Latin scandalum 'scandal'." Which, as you can see, doesn't contain a single iota of information you couldn't find from the entry for "slander" in Webster, American Heritage, OED, or any halfway decent dictionary. This book is both a redundancy and a rip-off. Stay away.

Rating:
Summary: Shallow Look At Dull Words
Review: First off, the Editorial Review is somewhat misleading, as there are very few idioms ("say it with flowers" is not one of them) in this book. The book is mainly concerned with words originating from Middle or Old English -- that is, words whose origins are straightforward.

I was hoping for a book that would discuss modern words with unclear (like "hooker", "skyscraper", or "reefer"), and include idioms common in today's speech. This book seems to limit its entries to words with easy-to-trace origins, and idioms (like "spick and span") that don't see much usage in the books I read.

There must be a better reference out there.