Nathan Bierma.
The Eclectic Encyclopedia of English.
Williams, James & Co. 2009
rating : 4.5 : passes the time
review : 7 August 2022
Nathan Bierma’s free-ranging discussion of English language topics, culled from his “On Language” column in the Chicago Tribune, is just a bit out of the ordinary
Here you will get under the hood to find out what etymologists do to arrive at their conclusions (they get under the hood), look at dictionaries through the eyes of those who make them (and catch them making up a word to catch would-be word pirates), and ponder simple usage questions (lay or lie? bring or take? could care less or couldn’t care less?) in ways you may not have considered before. Nathan also fields questions from his readers and shows off some of the more interesting Australian slang, horse racing clichés, untranslatable terms, birding vocabulary, and lots more.
And what is the meaning of presticogitation anyway?
A somewhat mixed bag of snippets about the English language: word meanings, slang, correct grammar, history, and more. Some of the pieces are interesting, some a bit banal, and some more trouble than they are worth. I learned a few snippets about English, although it is all very American English.
The main thing I noticed, however, is an authorial quirk. Clearly Bierma thinks in an evidential language, since whenever he mentions some information given to him by a third party, he says whether that happened was by email, telephone conversation, or in person. Weird.