Over the centuries,
English words have strayed from their original
meanings and acquired vastly different connotations.
Consider the word tryst, now a romantic liaison, but
which in Georgian and Victorian England referred to a
“fair for cattle, horses, and sheep.” You’ll also
discover that excrement described “hair, beard, and
other things growing out of the body” in
Shakespeare’s time, that a coffin was the raised crust
of a pie, and that the word slogan denoted the war cry
or gathering word of a Scottish border clan.
Like The Word Museum, the focus here is on the changes
in the English language, but unlike my other books,
Altered English contains currently used words and
phrases which have changed. A number of the entries
came from humble roots, such as penthouse which,
before its current use for describing a posh apartment
atop a tall building, denoted a shed sharing a common
wall with a larger structure. After spending some time
with this book you may never hear English in quite the
same way.
In hardback from Pomegranate.
ISBN 0-7649-2019-7. |
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