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The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins

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Overview

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Hear the story behind the everyday words in our lexicon, and follow an award-winning professor as she demonstrates how much the evolution of our language can teach us about ourselves.

Syllabus

  • 01: Winning Words, Banished Words
  • 02: The Life of a Word, from Birth to Death
  • 03: The Human Hands behind Dictionaries
  • 04: Treasure Houses, Theft, and Traps
  • 05: Yarn and Clues-New Word Meanings
  • 06: Smog, Mob, Bling-New Words
  • 07: “Often” versus “Offen” -Pronunciation
  • 08: Fighting over Zippers
  • 09: Opening the Early English Word-Hoard
  • 10: Safe and Sound-The French Invasion
  • 11: Magnifical Dexterity-Latin and Learning
  • 12: Chutzpah to Pajamas-World Borrowings
  • 13: The Pop/Soda/Coke Divide
  • 14: Maths, Wombats, and Les Bluejeans
  • 15: Foot and Pedestrian-Word Cousins
  • 16: Desultory Somersaults-Latin Roots
  • 17: Analogous Prologues-Greek Roots
  • 18: The Tough Stuff of English Spelling
  • 19: The b in Debt-Meddling in Spelling
  • 20: Of Mice, Men, and Y'All
  • 21: I'm Good ... Or Am I Well?
  • 22: How Snuck Sneaked In
  • 23: Um, Well, Like, You Know
  • 24: Wicked Cool-The Irreverence of Slang
  • 25: Boy Toys and Bad Eggs-Slangy Wordplay
  • 26: Spinster, Bachelor, Guy, Dude
  • 27: Firefighters and Freshpersons
  • 28: A Slam Dunk-The Language of Sports
  • 29: Fooling Around-The Language of Love
  • 30: Gung Ho-The Language of War
  • 31: Filibustering-The Language of Politics
  • 32: LOL-The Language of the Internet
  • 33: #$@%!-Forbidden Words
  • 34: Couldn't (or Could) Care Less
  • 35: Musquirt and Other Lexical Gaps
  • 36: Playing Fast and Loose with Words
  • By This Professor

Taught by

Anne Curzan

Reviews

4.4 rating at The Great Courses Plus based on 153 ratings

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