Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings

RR 2003/389 Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings

Michael Quinnion Oxford University Press Oxford 2002 viii + 280 pp. ISBN 0-19-280123-6 L8.99/$16.95

Oxford Reference Paperbacks Keyword English language

Review DOI 10.1108/09504120310497997

Time was this little dictionary could have been even shorter: in days when Latin (and Greek) was still taught, and when principles of English grammar and lexicography were similarly part of a standard curriculum. If times have changed for the worse in that respect, I say so not for any deluded notions of halting progress, but because lack of knowledge of the use and effectiveness of our language causes real problems and has demonstrably serious consequences. How we achieve such levels of knowledge in our brave new world is another question entirely: this useful and entertaining little book certainly should help in the process.

So many English words, especially but by no means exclusively in the scientific and technical fields, have been constructed from Latin or Greek roots; there are other sources of suffixes and...