Dictionary of True Etymologies

Originally published in 1986 this dictionary gives the true etymologies, as far as they are known, of many English words that have frequently come to be associated with quite another, false origin. Among such words are those that have long been wrongly attributed in the language such as acorn, belfry, carnation, mosaic and saltcellar which are nothing to do with corn, bell, coronation, Moses or cellar, as it appears, but have quite a different etymology. In tracing back these and many other such misleading associations to their true origin, the book also exposes some of the more popular theories about words and their etymologies, such as the Welsh rabbit that is ‘really’ a Welsh ‘rare bit’. Nearly 1,200 words are so explained and their true etymologies given.