This isn’t your usual etymology book. Here you’ll find the histories of words relating to swearing, body parts and functions, sexuality, insults, slurs, racism, ableism, pirate talk, war and all things supernatural.

I found a few new favourites along the way, most notably brainsquirt, a word used about 350 years ago meaning “a feeble or abortive attempt at reasoning.” There’s also ignivomous, “spitting or vomiting fire”.

Then there were surprises, like discovering that in the 14th century, bowel meant tenderness or compassion.

“The word “shark” (or “sharker”) first appeared in English in the 1400’s, and at that time it meant “scoundrel”, “villain” or “swindler”. It wasn’t a word for the animal in English until the 1700’s.”

My favourite part of this book was the folktale about the jack-o’-lantern, where Jack successfully tricks Satan more than once, but at a price.

In hindsight, it probably would have been better if I’d dipped in and out of this book over a few weeks, reading about a handful of words each time. Reading from cover to cover, I ended up a bit bogged down.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Chambers, an imprint of John Murray Press, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.