Koala sleeping on a tree topImage via WikipediaLooking for a great read about the nuances of words, grammar, and the English language? Try Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer’s Guide to Getting It Right, by Bill Bryson. I wish I could remember the blogger who turned me on to it, because the book is absolutely awesome. Here’s a small sample.

  • No “a” in bellwether, and the word comes from wether, an Old English word for a castrated sheep. (p. 26)
  • Cement is a constituent of concrete. (p.36)
  • Enormity describes something monstrously wicked, not something large. (p. 69)
  • The exception proves the rule means the exception tests the rule. (p. 72)
  • It’s koala, not koala bear. Koalas are not bears. (p. 116)
  • “Optimum does not mean greatest of fastest or biggest, as is sometimes thought. It describes the point at which conflicting considerations are reconciled.” (p. 153)

You can see several more examples if you read my review of the book on Amazon. Between Lillie Ammann’s Dream or Destiny and this one, I haven’t been able to put a book down for days!

Have you learned anything interesting about words or grammar lately?

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