Anatoly Liberman is Professor of the Humanities at the University of Minnesota. For the past seventeen years, he has been working on a new etymological dictionary of English. He lives in Minneapolis.
"Word Origins is chock full of intriguing, accessible insights into
how our language has evolved, mutated and otherwise morphed over
thousands of years."--Pulse
"The erudite and winsome Liberman explains his work as an
etymologist, which includes historical cases to crack and tall
tales to debunk."--Chicago Tribune
"While Anatoly Liberman's study of the English language covers such
interesting topics as sound-imitative words, compounds, coinages,
and borrowings, it does so in a way that actually manages to be
dense and scholarly and tongue-in-cheek and amusing, all at the
same time."--Library Media Connection
"Those seriously interested in the origins of our language, who
actively want to find out more about the way etymologists work, and
who along the way don't mind taking in some sobering guidance on
the pitfalls of ferreting out word histories."--World Wide
Words
"As a sideline to his long ongoing work on a new etymological
dictionary of English, Liberman enlightens general readers...about
the challenges faced by etymologists in tracing word origins and
evolved meanins. His explanations cover philosophical musings,
historical debates in the field, and words imitating
sounds."--Reference & Research Book News
"It may sound simple, but etymology -- the study of word origins --
is in fact murky and tedious, if unfailingly fascinating.
Liberman's book is an examination of the process of determining how
a word originated, and it shows how complex his craft can
be."--Chicago Tribune
Ask a Question About this Product More... |