Books by Jesse Sheidlower
“This is a great one for showcasing the variety of swearing and all the circumstances you can use this one word. It starts with “absofuckinglutely” and ends with “zipless fuck,” and in the middle has “dumbfuck,” “frig,” “unfuckable”—so many great words. He’s done this excellent research, so you can see the dates when they were all first used, with quotes.” Read more...
Melissa Mohr, Linguist
Interviews where books by Jesse Sheidlower were recommended
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1
History in English Words
by Owen Barfield -
2
The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language
by Mark Forsyth -
3
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
by Oxford University Press -
4
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester -
5
The F-Word
by Jesse Sheidlower -
6
Slang To-day and Yesterday
by Eric Partridge
The Best Books on Etymology
The Best Books on Etymology
Are you an autodidactic maven of sesquipedalian verbosity? Do you venerate periphrasis, or simply revel in linguistic disquisition? If so, you might enjoy our selection of books on etymology, as recommended over the years by our expert interviewees.
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1
Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English
by Geoffrey Hughes -
2
What the F: What Swearing Reveals about Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves
by Benjamin K Bergen -
3
The F-Word
by Jesse Sheidlower -
4
Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
by Randall Kennedy -
5
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
by Steven Pinker
The best books on Swearing, recommended by Melissa Mohr
The best books on Swearing, recommended by Melissa Mohr
Linguistically, swear words are unique—they can shock and offend, are processed differently in the brain, and saying them may allow you to withstand pain for longer. But where do they get their distinctive power? And how has this changed over time? Melissa Mohr gives us a badmouthed tour of the best fucking books on swearing . . .
The best books on Slang, recommended by Jonathon Green
It’s dirty, grubby and doubting. And us at our most real. The lexicographer takes us inside the world of “rough, truthful language” from rhyming slang and cant to the streets of Baltimore and an etymology of the f-word
