Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words

A fun, brief, light read for anyone who enjoys word origins. These are specifically limited to words originating from people's names (real or fictional), and each essay explores the story of the person as much or more than the story of the word.

A quick read, or a nice book to have around to dip into here and there, Marciano keeps it on the light side, with just enough humor thrown in. Personally, I'd have liked for this book to contain twice as many entries, and, whenever possible, even more about the "forgotton people behind everyday words".

Warning: this book was obtained through the librarything early reviewers program and thus might represent an ARC which could be slightly different book than the final version.

"Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words" is written by John Marciano who is perhaps best known for being an author in the children's series "Madeline". This, his latest work, is a very easy to read book, most suitable for "word geeks," literature lovers, linguistics students, students of the history of the English language, or anyone who is a fan of trivia.

This book covers the origin of several words that are commonplace in the English language, but originally owed their start to being part of someone's name. Most people are aware of the Earl of Sandwich and his relationship to the food that bears his name, Mr. Crapper and his relationship to the toilet, and the word sadism as coming from Marquis de Sade. What about the pair of pants you are wearing? The word "pants" (originally Pantaloon) were named for Pantaleon, a physician. Shrapnel was named for Henry Shrapnel, the inventor of an exploding cannonball. You can read more about the origin of these words and many more by reading this book.

"Anonyponymous" is an entertaining read, although rather short, and is about the perfect size as a "stocking stuffer" for the holiday season or as a "grab bag" gift. If I had not obtained it as a reviewer, I would have unlikely purchased the book at it's list price which I feel to be too high for the size of the book. I suspect this will eventually find it's place in the bargain bin within the next year or so.

The succinct and vivid biographies of "the forgotten people behind everyday words" are fascinating and surprising, and Marciano's illustrations are absolutely charming.

For the first time in my life I will be able to give a meaningful Christmas present to all of my friends and family.

Not only are the stories entertaining, but the sketches are top notch. I did a little research, and this is the same author who illustrates (and writes) the Madeline books. Thanks NPR for broadcasting the interview!

This is the type of book that you can use in everyday life. I call it "coffee table" usefulness. "Coffee table" usefulness is information that you learn and you can use in your everyday life for instance when you are at a coffee table somewhere and you can contribute to conversations in an interesting way.