Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings [Paperback]

Michael Quinion (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Paperback --   -- --
Paperback, Oct 15 2005 --   -- --

Product Details

Product Description

Book Description

Aquaculture? Haemophilia? Isochronous? Neuralgia? Polyunsaturated? Rodenticide? How often do we see a technical word without quite knowing what it means? If we can decipher it-undo its language code-we can start to understand others of a similar kind. For example, if we know that words beginning with aqua are to do with water, then we are half way to understanding the word aquaculture. Ologies and Isms is about the building blocks of the English language - the beginnings and endings, and sometimes the middles - that help form or adapt many of the words we use. Whether you're a student or a practitioner, a teacher of English, an inveterate word-user, or just a seeker-out of linguistic trifles, Ologies and Isms will help you understand better the language of your workplace and the world around you.

About the Author

Michael Quinion has been a BBC studio manager and producer in radio, heritage interpreter, audio-visual scriptwriter and producer, museum curator, tourism consultant and computer software writer. He has researched word usage for the Oxford English Dictionary since 1992 and wrote a third of the entries for the Oxford Dictionary of New Words. Since 1997 his World Wide Words website has intrigued and entertained a great number of visitors with its informal but informed analyses of word histories and language evolution.

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars the before & aft of English, Dec 10 2003
By 
Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Paperback)
How often have you seen a technical word & not quite known what it meant? Tired of not really knowing what the ingredients on a food box in the store really are?

OLOGIES AND ISMS by Michael Quinion is a must-have dictionary that will help you decipher the prefixes & suffixes of modern English words.

Rebeccasreads recommends OLOGIES AND ISMS as an important resource for writers, reporters, students, & anyone who plays with words as in Scrabble or crosswords.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Enjoyable, July 20 2004
By James Skrydlak "mostlymozart" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Paperback)
The terminology of medicine and biology, to name just two fields, is rife with words formed largely by compounding Greek stems. This book enables a layman like me to make sense of them, and of many other words in more common usage. Michael Quinion's explanations of the word parts (usually prefixes and suffixes, but frequently syllables found in the middle of words) are clearly written, and he provides examples of the most common words using each stem.

I would estimate that perhaps 80% of the word stems contained in this book are of Greek origin, either directly or as modified by Latin usage. Since the list of stems is 269 pages long, however, that means that there are plenty of word stems of different origin.

This is also one of those rare reference books that are a joy just to dip into and read an entry or two.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars the before & aft of English, Dec 10 2003
By Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Paperback)
How often have you seen a technical word & not quite known what it meant? Tired of not really knowing what the ingredients on a food box in the store really are?

OLOGIES AND ISMS by Michael Quinion is a must-have dictionary that will help you decipher the prefixes & suffixes of modern English words.

Rebeccasreads recommends OLOGIES AND ISMS as an important resource for writers, reporters, students, & anyone who plays with words as in Scrabble or crosswords.


2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book, Oct 22 2005
By Dick Liebo "Reck On Ciler" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Paperback)
If you enjoy word origins, you will love this book. Very interesting.
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject


















i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?