Wilfred Funk (1882–1965)

30 Days...is pretty interesting. Some of the vocabulary has changed definitions over the years (for instance, chauvinistic no longer means obsessive love of your country. And I don't think schizophrenia has ever meant multiple personality disorder (now dissociative identity disorder); that's one of those Hollywood things). But it's pretty engaging for a book on vocabulary.

Some of the words this book teaches have had changes in meaning since it was first published, some others are just dated in general. Regardless, I would say that at least 95% of the material is very useful. I used this book in high school and many of the words I learned from it are still part of my daily vocabulary.

This story of words and their origins presents a vast amount of information. It is not, however, either a history or a textbook. The material, while strictly factual, is as entertaining as fiction.
Here the reader will find the life stories of thousands of words -- how, when, and where they originated, how their meanings changed and developed through the centuries, and many other facts that give a better understanding of the English language as it is today.

“Every word was once a poem,” is the first sentence of the book. Funk supports this thesis beautifully.