Madame Chairman Book

"English is famous for its expansive vocabulary and for its endless fascination with new words. Every year, hundreds of new words come into the language - words for new products and technologies, words for emerging fads in fashion and the arts, words for political and social developments, hip words, slang words, even words that were created as jokes. But for every one of these new adoptions, there are many more coinages that people choose to ignore. In fact, the history of the English language is littered with the remains of new-word wannabes.

What makes the difference between success and failure in a new word? Why do we embrace one new word and discard another? In Predicting New Words, Allan Metcalf explores these questions and provides a truly original look at the phenomenon of vocabulary creation. By surveying past winners and losers in the great game of linguistic innovation, Metcalf devises a formula for predicting the success of new words, showing how coiners of new words can boost their chances to put words - or at least a word - into the mouths of their fellow speakers."

My name is Brenda, and I am a word geek. Now that that's out of the way, this was an interesting little book. And any book that helps me get a clue on Jeopardy is officially worthwhile. I'm not sure there's all that much to say about it, though. The blurb there is pretty self-explanatory. The book did what it was supposed to, explained what it was supposed to, etc, and was decently enjoyable to read. I learned some things about the histories of a few words, and learned some newer words that apparently were pretty big in 2002, but that have died out so quickly I never even noticed them. Anyway, if you dig words, this book is enjoyable. If you don't, it's probably dull as all hell.