David Wilton (1) (1963–)

David Wilton takes on the sacred cows of word or phrase origins (such as "Ring Around the Rosie" and "The Windy City") and provides their actual provenance and/or etymology. Naturally, there are some words and phrases that can't be traced to their origins: for these, Wilton shows us how the myth cannot be true. His breezy, light touch is just the right style for this sort of work. He's humorous without being petty, and informative without being pedantic. A fun read.

This book discusses urban myths about English word etymologies. While entertaining, I found , even for the urban legends I would have never believed, the legend so much more interesting than the actual etymology that I was worried I wouldn't remember the actual origin of the word. I guess that's what makes them spread so well even though untrue.

This book aims to examine urban myths surrounding word origins, phrases, and commonly held misperceptions about words. Included: how many words for snow to Eskimos really have, "OK," and whether or not picnics are racist. Wilton does an excellent job of presenting the stories and why the stories started, and then ripping the stories to shreds. He also includes his research methods, which is a nice addition. Unlike most books like this, the words and phrases are organized based on a theme, show more not in alphabetical order.
Entertaining read for armchair linguists. show less

Urban legends for the entymologist. In some ways its kind of depressing to learn that those cute little stories you always heard were false but you get to learn new ones.