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"The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English" by Henry Hitchings. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 448 pages, September 2008.

In "The Secret Life of Words," British writer Henry Hitchings examines words that have entered English from other languages. Through his look at words, Hitchings also explores the history and culture of English-speaking people and finds the connections between what was going on in the world and the words that English borrowed from other languages. 

Each chapter's title is a borrowed word such as "ensemble" (French), "powwow" (North American Indian) and "voodoo" (the African language of Fon). The first big influences on written English were Greek and Latin. Hitchings explains how words of Greek origin entered English in scientific and technical terms. The names for our sciences come from Greek: "astronomy," "mathematics" and "pharmacy," for example. Latin played a strong role in the formation of new words, and that influence continues today. We still use "alumnus," "alumna," "alumni" and "alumnae." We still add items to our "agenda" and still write a "memorandum." The prefixes and suffixes that we use often some from Greek and Latin, and learning those particles is an important part of our education.

English also has a surprising number of words from Arabic and Hebrew.  In the chapter titled "Saffron," Hitchings uses the word "sugar" as an example of a word derived from Arabic. Sugar arrived in western Europe as part of the trade with people from the East, and many of the words that came from Arabic were introduced through commerce and travel. The Reformation, Hitchings writes, prompted the study of Hebrew, and words that we associate with religion often came from Hebrew: "messiah," "hosanna," "jubilee" and "Satan."  Hitchings also cites words from French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, and words that came from India and Africa.

Hitchings writes, "British interest in India began ... with a desire for strong flavours." That seems to me to be the reason that we English speakers continue to adopt and adapt words from other languages: We like the strong flavors. 

The chapter titled "Blizzard" looks at the American influence on English. The now common word for a blinding snowstorm "blizzard," the chapter heading says, was popularized by the American press during the winter of 1880-81. British and American English diverged early in pronunciation and in word choice. Noah Webster, the famous dictionary writer, reveled in the American differences with British English. Hitchings points to Webster's most important achievement: an emphasis on clarity and simplicity. We can credit Webster for our spelling of "flavor" instead of "flavour."

For a word nerd like me, the fun of Hitchings' book is in finding out more about the origins of words. I marked pages with sticky notes so I could remember them. "Hubbub," a word for an uproar, comes from a Gaelic term associated with the wail of bagpipes. The South African language Xhosa contributed "homeboy," a loan translation of "umkhaya." The word "cliche" was a printers' term for a plate used in type foundries. "An expression repeated too often bears the shallow mechanical imprint of the printing plate: You can hear in the word the wet click of a machine and then a metallic emptiness," Hitchings writes. I love the sound of Yiddish words, and Hitchings mentions a few colorful ones: "nebbish" (a dolt who fares poorly in the world), "schmaltz" (corny sentiment) and "nudnik" (a nag or a bore). [I must mention my all-time favorite Yiddish word "bubkes," which means "nothing."] An index of words and terms in the back of Hitchings' book could keep you busy for hours as you look up one after another. By the way, "grammar" and "glamour" are etymologically related.

Hitchings' writing style is easy and lively, but the book's subject is dense and somewhat esoteric. I would not recommend this book to someone with only a slight interest in language study. If you like history and language, though, you might find this book interesting and enjoyable, and you will learn more about how English became English.