English Language History

Who knew that the great country of Canada is named for a mistake? How about "bedswerver", the best Elizabethan insult to hurl at a cheating boyfriend? By exploring the delightful back stories of the 250 words in Wordcatcher, listeners will be lured by language and entangled in etymologies. It takes a special wordcatcher to create a treasure chest of remarkable words and their origins, and any word lover will relish the stories that Cousineau has discovered.

Many consider "The Canterville Ghost" the most famous ghost story of all time. It is a parody featuring a dramatic spirit named Sir Simon and an American ambassador named Mr. Hiram B. Otis. Mr. Otis travels to England with his family and moves into a haunted castle. Lord Canterville, the previous owner of the castle, warns Mr. Otis that the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville has haunted the castle ever since he killed his wife, Eleonore, centuries ago.

The tigers of Chowghad were a man-eating Bengal tigress and her sub-adult cub, which for over a five-year period killed a reported 64 people in eastern Kumaon over an area spanning 1,500 square miles (3,900 square km). The tigress was attacking humans initially alone, but later she was assisted by her sub-adult cub. This is a story of a terrible man-eating tigress who had maximum number of preys on her name.

A delightful account of the seasons in a house and its garden near the sea, a domestic idyll of hardy plants and neighbors, outer and inner weather, love and loss, and taking stock of the life we’ve made The delicious long-form poem “The Vineyard” is set in and around the quasi-fictional...

This audiobook will show that the fundamentals, structure, formations, grammar, and syntax are exactly the same in music and in the Egyptian alphabetical language. The audiobook will show the musical/tonal/tonic Egyptian alphabets - being derived from the three primary tonal sounds/vowels; the fundamentals of generative phonology; and the nature of the four-sound variation of each letter and its exact equivalence in musical notes.

Who hasn't feared the math Minotaur in its labyrinth of abstractions? Now, in Out of the Labyrinth, Robert and Ellen Kaplan - the founders of The Math Circle, the popular learning program begun at Harvard in 1994 - reveal the secrets behind their highly successful approach, leading listeners out of the labyrinth and into the joyous embrace of mathematics.

To untangle the knot of interlocking meanings of these painted words, logophile and mythologist Phil Cousineau begins each fascinating word entry with his own brief definition. He then fills it in with a tint of etymology and a smattering of quotes that show how the word is used, ending with a list of companion words.

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Gaius Julius Caesar, the powerful Roman leader Queen Elizabeth I who ruled England for 45 years George Washington, the first president of the USA King Louis XVI, the last king of France Winston Churchill who led Britain in the...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Henry J Heinz, the man who invented tomato ketchup William Lever who made millions from soap Michael Marks, founder of the Marks and Spencer stores Henry Ford, who mass-produced cars and made them affordable Coco Chanel, the...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Antoine Lavoisier who wrote the first modern chemistry textbook Humphry Davy who discovered ‘laughing gas’ Charles Darwin who changed people’s ideas with his theory of evolution Gregor Mendel who first discovered the science...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Pablo Casals, the Catalan cello-player Louis Armstrong, the American trumpet-player and singer Frank Sinatra, the Italian-American singer and actor Édith Piaf, France's famous singing star Maria Callas, the Greek opera singer...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Alfred Nobel, creator of the Nobel Prize Andrew Carnegie, the businessman who built libraries for poor people John D. Rockefeller who made money from oil and gave it all away Thomas Barnardo who created homes for poor children...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Geoffrey Chaucer, writer of the first great works of English Literature William Shakespeare, writer of the greatest plays in history Charles Dickens who wanted to make England a better place Victor Hugo, the French writer who cared...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Marco Polo who taught the world about China Ibn Battuta who travelled to 44 countries Christopher Columbus who discovered new worlds James Cook, first to sail around the world in both directions David Livingstone who explored...

The inspiring stories of 5 people who changed history. Contents: Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, who helped humans to fly Louis Blériot, the first person to cross the sea in an aeroplane Charles Lindbergh, first to cross the Atlantic alone Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly alone across the...

The inspiring stories of 5 people who changed history. Contents: Leonardo da Vinci who painted the Mona Lisa Christopher Wren who rebuilt London Antoni Gaudí who built the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona Pablo Picasso, the famous Spanish painter Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican female artist...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery Michael Faraday, inventor of the electric motor Marie Curie, famous for her work on radioactivity Albert Einstein, creator of the Theory of Relativity Alexander Fleming, discoverer of the...

The inspiring stories of 6 people who changed history. Contents: Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher Socrates, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle, the first to organize scientific knowledge William Wilberforce who ended the British slave trade Karl Marx who wrote The Communist Manifesto...

Discover how the food we love shapes the language we use in this sharp, laugh-out-loud story of the etymology of food words. All food has a story, reaching as far back into history as language itself. Throughout time, as languages followed and reflected the tides of civilizations, food language...

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