THEREBY HANGS A TALE: Stories of Curious Word Origins

The fascinating sport of word sleuthing is here enhanced by the supplementary and amplifying backgrounds given to the ancestry, birth and growth of words. A work, with thirty years of study behind it, to be enjoyed by all those to whom etymology is either a hobby or a professional study, this gives the words alphabetically, beginning with abet, abeyance, abhor, on through clue, fad, indolence, mentor, pants, and ends with the mystery of the word Yankee. The lines of descent and the sources have been checked; the acquired meanings are noted; the historical background of the word is indicated; related words are grouped together; there is a full index. A friendly companion to A Hog On Ice (1948) which treated similarly with curious expressions.