The Secret Lives of Words: From Rome to Apalachicola (color illustrations) Kindle Edition

(Edition with color illustrations; b/w edition also available.) DID YOU KNOW that LINGUistics and LINGUine have come to us from the same Latin word, lingua, a noun meaning “tongue” (like the one in your mouth) which dates back MILLENNia (from mille/thousand + annus/year)? Or that the Romans were crazy about OYSTERs (ostreae) and WINe (vinum), but didn’t much care for beer (cervesia, source of Mexican CERVEZA)? Or why they called their 12th month DECEMber, which actually means “10th” (as in DECIMal and DECIMate)? The Secret Lives of Words: From Rome to Apalachicola will transport you back to ancient Rome and introduce you to hundreds of the Romans’ words, and countless aspects of their daily lives, that have journeyed across the sea (mare, as in MARine and even MARinara) and through the CENTURIes (centuriae) and settled in sunny Apalach. Oh, and in case you’re wondering about all those CAPITAL letters: they’re employed to highlight the Latin roots in the thousands of everyday English words whose “secret lives” are examined in fun and informative ways throughout the book. While many of the chapters connect in one way or another to Apalachicola, Florida, where the author and his wife live for part of the year, these essays will entertain and inform all readers with an interest in the English language and the manifold influences of the ancient Romans and their Latin tongue on the modern world. The volume contains more than 250 illustrations, black and white in one edition (ISBN: 9781074538255), color in the other. "Rick LaFleur, one of the country’s premier Latinists and author of a best-selling introductory Latin text and numerous other books, has provided a rich, illuminating resource for word-lovers in this latest volume. In a series of entertaining and informative essays (adapted from his columns for the Apalachicola Times and other Gannett newspapers), he connects everyday words to their Latin origins and to related aspects of Greek and Roman history, religion, mythology, even science, that expand our understanding of our own language and culture, often in surprising ways. The author’s enthusiasm for the Latin language and ancient Rome comes across in every paragraph, and his tone is consistently easy-going and conversational." Robert I. Curtis, Professor Emeritus of Classics, University of Georgia Read more