AMERICAN WORDS

A compact volume which shows what happened to the English language when the first English settlers reached American shores, and what has continued to happen to it over the last 350 years. Illustrating his thesis by numerous words and phrases accompanied by careful historical notes, the author writes of such terms as ""high school"" or the problems inherent in the word ""American"" as defining a citizen of the United States; he includes many terms born in America which have travelled far, which seem unnecessary:- ""log cabin"", ""outboard motor"", or the almost obsolete ""Conestoga wagon"". A meaningful text for all those who depend on American-English as a primary means of communication, a lucid introduction to the field of etymology, comfortably within the scope of the high school reader.