An obsessive word lover's account of reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary, hailed as "the Super Size Me of lexicography." "I'm reading the OED so you don't have to," says Ammon Shea on his slightly masochistic journey to scale the word lover's Mount Everest: the Oxford English Dictionary. In 26 chapters filled with sharp wit, sheer delight, and a documentarian's keen eye, Shea shares his year inside the OED, delivering a hair-pulling, eye-crossing account of reading every word.
The author of Reading the OED presents an eye-opening look at language “mistakes” and how they came to be accepted as correct—or not. English is a glorious mess of a language, cobbled together from a wide variety of sources and syntaxes, and changing over time with popular usage. Many of the words and usages we embrace as standard and correct today were at first considered slang, impolite, or just plain wrong. Whether you consider yourself a stickler, a nitpicker, or a rule-breaker in the know, Bad English is sure to enlighten, enrage, and perhaps even inspire. Filled with historic and contemporary examples, the book chronicles the long and entertaining history of language mistakes, and features some of our most common words and phrases, including: Decimate Hopefully Enormity That/which Enervate/energize Bemuse/amuse Literally/figuratively Ain’t Irregardless Socialist OMG Stupider Lively, surprising, funny, and delightfully readable, this is a book that will settle arguments among word lovers—and it’s sure to start a few, too.
Ammon Shea was ten when he first discovered the joy of reading a dictionary rather than using it to look a word up. Little did he imagine that one day he would spend over $1,000 and sacrifice an entire bookcase and a whole year to the twenty volumes that make up the king of all reference books: The Oxford English Dictionary. It was a year that changed his life, not least when he fell in love with a lexicographer. In this hilarious, personal and fascinating book, with a chapter for each letter of the alphabet, Shea introduces us to hundreds of words he discovered that deserve to see the light of day again, and explains why. Want to know the word for the area on your back that you can't reach to scratch (acnestis)? Or the term for the smell of earth just after a rainstorm (petrichor)? Or perhaps you're just looking for the word to describe that feeling of saying enough (satisdiction). This book is all you need.
If you are interested in vocabulary that is both spectacularly useful and beautifully useless, read on. I have read the OED so you don't have to...' Weighing in at 137 pounds, the Oxford English Dictionary is the word lover's Everest and the world's most exhaustive and exhausting dictionary - for instance, there are over 60,000 words on the various meanings of set and un- goes on for 451 pages. Like a lexicographical Edmund Hillary, Ammon Shea set out to boldly read, where no reader has gone before - from cover to cover.Reading the OED gives a very funny account of his coffee-fuelled twelve months lost inside its 20 volumes. Divided into 26 chapters, one per letter of the alphabet, this book is part personal narrative (exploring everything from love to glasses to the superiority of books over computers) and part a collection of Shea's favourite discoveries. These span from the oddly useful (parabore - a defence against bores) to the downright bizarre (natiform - shaped like buttocks) and takes in Nashe's eight different kinds of drunkenness and all kinds of other strangely memorable information along the way. Filled with curiosities, delights and surprises, Reading the OED is a feast for language obsessives, from a man who loves words (perhaps a little too much).
From the scatologically inclined word-hounds who wrote "Depraved English" comes a compendium of hilarious, unsavory, off-color words people never knew they needed but won't be able to do without.
An obsessive word lover provides an account of the year he spent reading the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover, offering a selection of obscure and offbeat vocabulary gems he discovered along the way.
At last, a compendium of ingeniously insulting words for every occasion. For anyone who's been stymied by the level of sloth, bad looks and low intelligence of his fellow man (and woman), help is on the way. You can't change the tiresome creatures around you, but now you can describe them behind their backs with pleasing specificity. Yes, Insulting English is a user's guide to little-known and much-needed words that include: Gubbertush: Buck-toothed person Hogminny: A depraved young woman Nihilarian: Person with a meaningless job Pursy: Fat and short of breath Scombroid: Resembling a mackerel Tumbrel: A person who is drunk to the point of vomiting These and many other gems from our colorful mother tongue are collected on these pages. Now every gink, knipperdollin, and grizely dunderwhelp can be called by his rightful name.
If you are interested in vocabulary that is both spectacularly useful and beautifully useless, read on. I have read the OED so you don't have to...' Weighing in at 137 pounds, the Oxford English Dictionary is the word lover's Everest and the world's most exhaustive and exhausting dictionary - for instance, there are over 60,000 words on the various meanings of set and un- goes on for 451 pages. Like a lexicographical Edmund Hillary, Ammon Shea set out to boldly read, where no reader has gone before - from cover to cover.Reading the OED gives a very funny account of his coffee-fuelled twelve months lost inside its 20 volumes. Divided into 26 chapters, one per letter of the alphabet, this book is part personal narrative (exploring everything from love to glasses to the superiority of books over computers) and part a collection of Shea's favourite discoveries. These span from the oddly useful (parabore - a defence against bores) to the downright bizarre (natiform - shaped like buttocks) and takes in Nashe's eight different kinds of drunkenness and all kinds of other strangely memorable information along the way. Filled with curiosities, delights and surprises, Reading the OED is a feast for language obsessives, from a man who loves words (perhaps a little too much).
The author of Reading the OED presents an eye-opening look at language “mistakes” and how they came to be accepted as correct—or not. English is a glorious mess of a language, cobbled together from a wide variety of sources and syntaxes, and changing over time with popular usage. Many of the words and usages we embrace as standard and correct today were at first considered slang, impolite, or just plain wrong. Whether you consider yourself a stickler, a nitpicker, or a rule-breaker in the know, Bad English is sure to enlighten, enrage, and perhaps even inspire. Filled with historic and contemporary examples, the book chronicles the long and entertaining history of language mistakes, and features some of our most common words and phrases, including: Decimate Hopefully Enormity That/which Enervate/energize Bemuse/amuse Literally/figuratively Ain’t Irregardless Socialist OMG Stupider Lively, surprising, funny, and delightfully readable, this is a book that will settle arguments among word lovers—and it’s sure to start a few, too.
Show reluctant teens that reading is not only fundamental-it's also fun! In this companion book to Rip-Roaring Reads for Reluctant Teen Readers, Ammon and Sherman describe 40 exciting, contemporary titles (20 for middle school, 20 for high school) written by outstanding authors. These are books your students won't want to put down. Designed to make the matching process between student and books easy and successful, this volume also includes genre and theme indexes, curriculum activities, interest and readability levels, and reproducible bookmarks for each entry.
This guide provides a single-source, comprehensive listing of a fascinating and helpful group of books-picture books for older readers. A multitude of ideas about how to use them in the classroom supplements this list of carefully selected quality fiction and nonfiction books that focuses on universal themes, appeals to all ages, addresses important issues, and is accessible to multiple learning styles. Picture books aren't just for the very young. Innovative educators and parents have used them for years with readers of all ages and reading levels, knowing that students comprehend more from the visual-verbal connections these books offer. They are great tools for teaching visual literacy and writing skills; are effective with reluctant readers, ESL students, and those reading below grade level; and can easily be used to support various curriculum. This guide provides a single-source, comprehensive listing of a fascinating and helpful group of books and a multitude of ideas about how to use them in the classroom. The authors have carefully selected quality fiction and nonfiction that focus on universal themes, appeal to all ages, treat important issues, and are accessible to multiple learning styles.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.