Susie Dent is here to take children on a rip-roaring tour through some of the most astonishing, amusing and sometimes quite revolting backgrounds of English words. Did you know, for instance, that 'fizzle' originally meant to break wind silently? Over time, it came to describe a weak, spluttering, hissing sound. And you might think that 'ain't' isn't a word you should use, but it is thought the word was once used by kings and queens. As Susie Dent knows, even the most ordinary-sounding word can have the most extraordinary story behind it.
About the Author
Dent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her B.A. in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German.Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.
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