What in the word?
Subtitle: wordplay, word lore, and answers to the peskiest questions about language
By: Charles Harrington Elster.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Orlando, Fla
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: English language -- Etymology.; English language -- Usage.; English language -- Style.; Plays on words.; Americanisms.
Description: Presents a humorous look at the English language, including information on word and phrase origins, slang, style, usage, punctuation, and pronunciation.
Notes: A Harvest original.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-273) and index.
Table of contents: title: Once upon a word : word histories, mysteries, hoaxes, and hype : sorting the tall tales from the truth; title: A slough of solecisms : wherein the author leads you safely out of a morass of mistakes and misperceptions into the clear, comforting light of correct English; title: The grandiloquent gumshoe : words recovered, discovered, and devised; title: The elegance of style : distinctions, clarifications, niceties, and other little things that make your language more polished and precise; title: A civil tongue : wherein the author launders your pronunciation and presses you to speak with propriety and poise; title: Born in the U.S.A. : some quintessentially American words and expressions, from okay to humongous, with some other American stuff thrown in just for fun; title: The wonder of words : a fascinating farrago of word lore and wordplay that just didn't fit anywhere else.