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The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins cover art

The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins

By: Anne Curzan,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Anne Curzan
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Publisher's Summary

From new words such as "bling" and "email" to the role of text messaging and other electronic communications, English is changing all around us. Discover the secrets behind the words in our everyday lexicon with this delightful, informative survey of English, from its Germanic origins to the rise of globalization and cyber-communications.

Professor Curzan approaches words like an archaeologist, digging below the surface to uncover the story of words, from the humble "she" to such SAT words as "conflagration" and "pedimanous."

In these 36 fascinating lectures, you'll

  • discover the history of the dictionary and how words make it into a reference book like the Oxford English Dictionary;
  • survey the borrowed words that make up the English lexicon;
  • find out how words are born and how they die;
  • expand your vocabulary by studying Greek and Latin "word webs"; and
  • revel in new terms, such as "musquirt," "adorkable," and "struggle bus."

English is an omnivorous language and has borrowed heavily from the many languages it has come into contact with, from Celtic and Old Norse in the Middle Ages to the dozens of world languages in the truly global 20th and 21st centuries. You'll be surprised to learn that the impulse to conserve "pure English" is nothing new. In fact, if English purists during the Renaissance had their way, we would now be using Old English compounds such as "flesh-strings" for "muscles" and "bone-lock" for "joint."

You may not come away using terms like "whatevs" or "multislacking" in casual conversation, but you'll love studying the linguistic system that gives us such irreverent - and fun - slang, from "boy toy" to "cankles."

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2012 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2012 The Great Courses

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Wonderful, knowledgeable, and loving

It’s not lost on me that I’m feeling very inarticulate at the moment, so I can’t give a course about language the words it deserves. This is a thoroughly-researched exploration of the English language. It is accessible, entertaining, and broad in scope. Importantly, it also explores language change and social perceptions of different language forms, and encourages listeners to keep their minds open to the many different forms that English has grown to have.

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Fantastic

An entire University English Language Course in under 20 hours.. Up to date and Completely worth it..

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Excellent

well written and beautifully delivered. each chaoter is independent and can be listened to in and of itself, but still links back in to the broader narrative

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,

loved breakdown by chapters easy to binge on,or listen to one at a time. love great courses

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