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  1. Navigate Home
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  3. What's in a Name?

EBOOK

What's in a Name?

How Proper Names Became Everday Words

Eugene Ehrlich
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Pages
256
Year
2014
Language
English
Publisher
Henry Holt and Co.

About

A fun and informative guide to the how and why of proper names and their haphazard entry into common English language by the author of the bestselling Amo, Amas, Amat and More.

Mining the English language to turn up a colorful cast of characters, Eugene Ehrlich finds the historic and literary figures who have given their names to the English language in the interest of keeping it vibrant and their names alive. In What's in a Name? Ehrlich traces the history of eponymous words and their progenitors, illuminating the legacy of Louis Braille, inventor of the system of embossed printing for the blind; the verbal acrobatics of Baron Munchausen; the sadism of the Marquis de Sade; and much more. What's in a Name? will amuse and enlighten word buffs, history lovers, and trivia pursuers alike as Ehrlich, in his inimitable way, uncovers an exhaustive assemblage of characters who have left an indelible mark on the English language.

Related Subjects

  • Etymology
  • Linguistics
  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Adult Nonfiction

Reviews

"Utterly absorbing accounts of words that owe their origins to the deeds and misdeeds of real and fictional people. Well worth investigation."
Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe
"Eugene Ehrlich's researches offer the most exhaustive collection yet of eponyms-proper names that have been transformed into the language we use every day."
Jonathon Green, author of Chasing the Sun: Dictionary Makers and the Dictionaries They Mad

Artists

Eugene EhrlichAuthor