The Origins of English Words Audiobook By Joseph Twadell Shipley cover art

The Origins of English Words

A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots

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The Origins of English Words

By: Joseph Twadell Shipley
Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
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There are no direct records of the original Indo-European speech. By comparing the vocabularies of its various descendants, however, it is possible to reconstruct the basic Indo-European roots with considerable confidence. In The Origins of English Words, Shipley catalogues these proposed roots and follows the often devious, always fascinating, process by which some of their offshoots have grown.

Anecdotal, eclectic, and always enthusiastic, The Origins of English Words is a diverting expedition beyond linguistics into literature, history, folklore, anthropology, philosophy, and science.

©1984 Joseph T. Shipley (P)2023 Tantor Linguistics Social Sciences Words, Language & Grammar
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I am not be facetious. When I put this on at night, it helps me fall asleep. It is the most effective thing I have ever found to help with this. The book itself contains lots of outdated information, but some of it is interesting. The narrator speaks quickly and fluidly, jumping from one line to the next in a way that I find calming and relaxing. The various stories are often interesting, but they are short and quickly move on to others and then others, so it doesn't get too hung up on any one thing.

The key is the "discursive" nature of it. Just as, in a dream, one thing might lead to another and then to another with a flow that is more intuitive than logical, this book is filled with asides, ramblings, and quotes that go in different directions. There is a vague alphabetical order, but it strays from it often. For instance, the word "element" leads to a history of the word for every element in the periodic table.

If you are looking for something to put on at night and just zone out, this is a great one! Maybe that wasn't the intent of it, but it truly serves in that capacity.

A great book for falling asleep!

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This is a book published in 1984 by the then 90-year-old author. The English professor died in 1988 and thus missed the 1989 publication of the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, OED2.

Quagmire, quacksalver, Quakers, Quaker-gun. Frequently within the book will be a series of related words, and then details about the origins about the words, some related stories, and their use in literature. The OED was heavily referenced while putting together this book. Vivify, viable, viper from their trait of birthing their offspring alive, revive, vitality, victuals.

Amazingly, it comes off as lively, with a factoid you likely haven't heard before every minute. The narrator does a great job of it. However, there are occasional places where the asides are cryptic. "Ad infinitum, as heard with the fleas..." The author is referencing a Jonathan Swift poem.
So, Nat'ralists observe, a Flea
Hath smaller Fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller yet to bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum:

But most references are giving fully. Likely, this book has a larger vocabulary than anything else on Audible.

Recommended.

The best "Read the Dictionary" on Audible

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This book was so boring that I could only listened to it a little over 2 hours. I couldn't fathom listening to it for 36 hours. I love anything to do with etymology but this book was..... well, it was outdated (since it was published a while ago, I'll let that slide) and written in the most boring manner. The narrater's performance didn't help either. I wish I could return it for a refund! I wasted my 1 credit for it. I guess I could use it as my "sleep aid."

Soooooo boring

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