The Gilded Tongue: Overly Eloquent Words for Everyday Things
What distinguishes "The Gilded Tongue" from the  banausic (practical or utilitarian) volumes on my reference shelf is that  it is great fun to read. --Jim Busch, Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewThe  point of learning new words is not to impress your friends or to seem more  intelligent than>they. The point is to see more, to understand more.  The Gilded Tongue uncovers old connections, introduces new spheres, and--in  reminding us that there are words for all thoughts, all feelings, all  things--upholds all humankind.   --Robert Hartwell Fiske, editor and  publisher of The Vocabula Review