Contributions

  • Rhinelander, Mary F. - Contributor
  • Goodfellow, Kris - Contributor

Publication

2010 - Touchstone Book, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

81,500 words, Guess

Page Count

326 pages

Identifiers

  • Internet Archiveenglishiscomingh0000dunt
  • ISBN-101439176655
  • ISBN-101439176698
  • ISBN-139781439176658
  • ISBN-139781439176696
and 6 more
  • Library of Congress Control Number2010025230
  • OCLC Control Number642511251
  • Better World Books9781439176658
  • Better World Books9781439176696
  • Better World Books414-BAC-281
  • Open LibraryOL26452351M

Classifications

  • DDC420.9
  • LCCPE1073 .E549 2010
  • LCCPN1992.4
and 1 more
  • LCCPE1073.E549 2010

Description

"Through the fascinating stories of thirty English words used and understood in nearly all corners of the globe, The English Is Coming! takes readers on an eye-opening journey across culture and commerce, war and peace, and time and space. These mini-histories shed new light on everyday words: the strange turns of fate by which their meanings evolved and their new roles as the building blocks of the first language ever to forge a global community. Exploring such familiar terms as shampoo (from a Hindi word for scalp and body hygiene long practiced in India); robot (coined by Czech painter Josef Capek for his brother Karel's 1921 play about man-made creatures); credit (rooted in a prehistoric phrase of sacred significance: "to put heart into"); and dozens of others, Dunton-Downer reveals with clarity and humor how these linguistic artifacts embody the resilience, appeal, adoptability, and wild inclusiveness that English, through a series of historical accidents, gained on its road to worldwide reach. These words explain not only how English has managed to link our distant and often disparate pasts but also how it is propelling humankind to a future that we can, for the first time, talk about and shape in a language that now belongs to all of us: Global English"--Page 2 of cover.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • The English is coming!: how one language is sweeping the worldTouchstone Book2010-01-01

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