Forgotten English

Forgotten English by Jeffrey Kacirk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Forgotten English is a collection of antiquated words and their histories.

When I saw this book, I was picturing a dictionary full of words that have fallen out of favor. While it is that, it's also a lot more.

Forgotten English contains a lot of words, some seldom used, some probably never uttered aloud in several centuries, and a lot of fun facts pertaining to them. Did you know that a stirrup-cup, a mug of some alcoholic beverage handed to a horsed patron of a tavern as he leaves, is the origin of the phrase "one for the road?" That's just one of the words within. Don't get me started on Scandaroon, Nimgimmer, or Kingsevil....

Some of the entries ran a little long. I would have preferred more definitions and less of the fluffier bits. The writing style was pretty good and I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I hadn't just read The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson.

This book was not precisely what I imagined but I enjoyed it just the same. 3 out of 5 stars.

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