words and language

A remarkable book for anyone who loves words and enjoys reading about them. The point is not to learn new words (a point which may have eluded some reviewers) but to bask in the joy of arcane and long-lost terms or bizarre coinages. It is indeed 'grandiloquent' as advertised - a slightly pretentious and more than slightly off-kilter look at the weirdest the English language has to offer.

A verbivore's delight! If you are a collector of unusual, obscure and fanciful language, this delightful literati gem will take you on a well-organized journey of fabulous, flavorful and forgotten words with a historical perspective and clever samples of usage.

It must be said that if you are looking for a serious reference book to boost a lacking vocabulary, look elsewhere. Using Mr Elster's words may earn you some extremely strange looks. But for those among us who are non-scopophobic and thrive on strange looks, as well as those of us who love the English language, this book should provide endless cachinnation. The blend of true words and nonce-words created from various prefixes and suffixes may at times aggravate those who want to be sure, but how could a real logomaniac be angry with that? Those nonce-words, when they become real, are reminders of exactly how great are the possibilities of this language.