The English language is forever changing. New words appear; old ones fall out of use or change their meanings.
World Wide Words tries to record at least some part of this shifting wordscape by featuring new words, word histories, the background to words in the news, and the curiosities of native English speech.
This site is the archive of pieces that have appeared in the free e-magazine. Weekly issues include much more than appears here, including discussion by readers, serendipitous encounters with unfamiliar language, and tongue-in-cheek tut-tuttings at errors perpetrated by sloppy writers.
A selection of books full of words
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Eats, shoots & leaves : why, commas really DO make a difference! by by Lynne Truss.
This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset about it. Lynne Truss dares to say that, with our system of punctuation patently endangered, it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them for the wonderful and necessary things they are. If there are only pedants left who care, then so be it. "Sticklers unite" is her rallying cry. "You have nothing to lose but your sense of proportion--and arguably you didn't have much of that to begin with." Braille 2 vols, TB 13675, Giant print 1 vol.
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Strictly English: the correct way to write... and why it matters by Simon Heffer.
Simon Heffer's incisive and amusingly despairing emails to colleagues at the The Daily Telegraph about grammatical mistakes and stylistic slips have found their way on to the internet and have attracted a growing band of ardent fans over recent years. Now, in his new book Strictly English, he makes an impassioned case for an end to the sloppiness that has become such a hallmark of everyday speech and writing, and shows how accuracy and clarity are within the grasp of anyone who is prepared to take the time to master a few simple rules. Braille 6 vols, Giant ptint 4 vols.
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The Oxford dictionary of English grammar edited by Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner.
The text provides definitions of one thousand grammatical terms with examples of language in use and frequent quotations from existing grammar texts. Braille 10 vols.
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The Penguin dictionary of curious and interesting words by George Stone Saussy III.
This dictionary contains over one thousand fascinating words - erotic, poetic and abusive, from abaxial to zoophiliac. TB 408996.