Jeffries Marka

Word origins is a fascinating subject, but I am afraid I was very disappointed with this often inaccurate book. Granted, many English words and phases have mixed origins and history, but many do not. This book wrongly attributes dozens of 17c and 18c English words and phrases to 19c America'. e.g "egg on one's face" they say is a 1960's American expression, when it is clearly 18c English from being pelted whilst in the village stocks. Similarly, to "knocked into a cocked hat is not 1950's American ! I wonder if they have written this for the US market, or is that too sinister ? Also, that well-known house of literary excellence "The Mid Sussex Times", appears all too often as their source of recent usage for, presumably as it is their local paper ! Having re-browsed as I write, it is worse than I remember ! 1/10.