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Susie Dent: Interesting Stories about Curious Words (2023, Hodder & Stoughton) 3 stars

Uninteresting stories about too many words

3 stars

I was expecting well researched longer stories about much fewer words. A few pages each about at most a hundred words. (There we have one, hundred, meant 120 sometimes, not always 100.)

This was in parts just dictionary entries, some outdated and sexist, some not understood. Some were missed opportunities: how is it even possible to write an etymological entry about »Molotov cocktail« and not mention Molotov bread baskets and it being the drink to go with his food?