- Paperback: 360 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (Aug 7 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0199691614
- ISBN-13: 978-0199691616
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.8 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 621 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #525,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Deftly introduces the modern student to this discipline" --Seth Lerer, Times Literary Supplement 25/02/11
Review from previous edition: "A valuable and readable book. It offers a lucid, careful discussion of the main principles of etymology, and illustrates them with copious examples. It also nicely contextualizes etymology within the field of historical linguistics as a whole.... Deserves a place on every etymologist's shelves." --LinguistList, 03/08/2010
"I am very impressed by the thoroughness of its coverage and the scholarly yet accessible style in which it is written. There is a real need for a book of this kind, which will appeal to the interested and informed general public as well as students and scholars." --Joan Beal, Professor of English University of Sheffield 21/11/2008
"Not only is this book truly excellent, it is unique in at least two ways. First, because it is the only dedicated textbook on the market as far as I know entirely devoted to etymology; and second because it is by an etymologist working on the OED, the best and fullest etymological dictionary of any language currently available." --Roger Lass, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Cape Town 21/11/2008
Review from previous edition: "A valuable and readable book. It offers a lucid, careful discussion of the main principles of etymology, and illustrates them with copious examples. It also nicely contextualizes etymology within the field of historical linguistics as a whole.... Deserves a place on every etymologist's shelves." --LinguistList, 03/08/2010
"I am very impressed by the thoroughness of its coverage and the scholarly yet accessible style in which it is written. There is a real need for a book of this kind, which will appeal to the interested and informed general public as well as students and scholars." --Joan Beal, Professor of English University of Sheffield 21/11/2008
"Not only is this book truly excellent, it is unique in at least two ways. First, because it is the only dedicated textbook on the market as far as I know entirely devoted to etymology; and second because it is by an etymologist working on the OED, the best and fullest etymological dictionary of any language currently available." --Roger Lass, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Cape Town 21/11/2008
Book Description
This practical introduction to word history investigates every aspect of where words come from and how they change. Philip Durkin, chief etymologist of the Oxford English Dictionary, shows how different types of evidence can shed light on the myriad ways in which words change in form and meaning. He considers how such changes can be part of wider linguistic processes, or be influenced by a complex mixture of social and cultural factors. He illustrates every point with a wide range of fascinating examples. Dr Durkin investigates folk etymology and other changes which words undergo in everyday use. He shows how language families are established, how words in different languages can have a common ancester, and the ways in which the latter can be distinguished from words introduced through language contact. He examines the etymologies of the names of people and places. His focus is on English but he draws many examples from languages such as French, German, and Latin which cast light on the pre-histories of English words. The Oxford Guide to Etymology is reliable, readable, instructive, and enjoyable. Everyone interested in the history of words will value this account of an endlessly fascinating subject.
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4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent textbook, Jan 1 2011
By Christian Lüer - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Oxford Guide to Etymology (Hardcover)
An excellent and comprehensive book. This book is for anyone who wants to know what etymology is all about, how it works and what problems it faces. If you ever browsed an etymological dictionary or looked at the brief etymologies in a regular dictionary and wondered, "How did they come up with this?", then you should read this book.The writing is very accessible and readable. If only most other language scholars wrote like this.
The book really expects no prior knowledge, but it would help if the reader is familiar with the basics of grammar and knows a foreign language.
One of the best points of the book: it discredits the common misconception that etymology is about finding the "true" or "original" meaning of a word. There is no such thing, since language changes all the time, and always did so. For a reader who is not familiar with the history of the English language, it can be quite fascinating to see how dramatically it changed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine orientation into the subject and a stimulus to further study, Oct 20 2011
By Simon Esposito - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Oxford Guide to Etymology (Paperback)
A clear, fairly formal presentation of the science of etymology, which is in many ways like archaeology or landscape history (only of words). The book's strength is its reasonably pain-free presentation of the latest research on the subject's theoretical bases. But any dryness is alleviated through plenty of attention to its methods and practice, with many detailed but fascinating (and often delightfully surprising) examples and case studies.It may be a little heavyweight when compared to a number of recent books, which are basically just collections of curious word histories (e.g. The Etymologicon). But it's the one to choose if you want something serious enough to help make the most of the etymological entries in the larger dictionaries. It also fills a need for an accessible introductory guide for someone who wants to actively work in the field. This is especially important, because of all the linguistic sciences this one is the most open to amateur contributions and independent study.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Seems to want to serve as a textbook, but it's one of the most dry books on linguistics I've ever read, April 8 2012
By Christopher Culver - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Oxford Guide to Etymology (Hardcover)
Philip Durkin's THE OXFORD GUIDE TO ETYMOLOGY is an introduction to this field of linguistics, the tracing of word histories. Durkin is an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and in this introduction he draws all of the examples from the history of English. Of course that means drawing in data from Latin, French, Old Norse, etc., but since the words he examines are part of English, any reader can relate to them.This book is chock-full of information, but it's difficult to see what the audience is. From the initial pages, one might think this is meant as a textbook for students of linguistics or the history of English specifically. However, there are no exercises and the information is not broken up into convenient individual lessons. THE OXFORD GUIDE TO ETYMOLOGY is in fact exceedingly dry, and will prove a daunting read even for those with a linguistics background. I'd recommend it to those who have worked with Hock's challenging but worthy handbook Principles of Historical Linguistics, as Durkin's book complements Hock's book with more detail on this particular aspect of language change.
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