The title: Six Words You Never Knew Had Something To Do With Pigs: And Other Fascinating Facts About The Language From Canada's Word Lady
The author: Katherine Barber
Publication: Oxford UP, 2006
Got it from: The library
For the record, the six words are porcelain, screw, soil, porpoise, root and swain.
Etymology lovers everywhere will probably love this book, so they can nag everyone they know with interesting tidbits concerning word origins. I am an etymology lover. Therefore, I continually interrupted my husband to discuss a fascinating word origin. For instance, I took great glee in telling him (a younger son) that the French word puisné, meaning 'born next' (i.e., younger son) is where we get the word "puny". The French had another word for younger son, capdet (little head), which fascinatingly enough gives us the word captain (younger sons often joined the military), cadet, caddy and cad. Ha!
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