Julia Cresswell

Did you know that coconut derives from the Spanish and Portuguesecoco for 'grinning face'? Or that giraffes used to be called camelopards? Or thatwalrus has its origin in Dutch, meaning 'whale horse'. The Little Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins includes 1,000 word histories arranged across 100 wide-ranging themes, fromfood to phobias, from the universe tolove. Featuring words with interesting or surprising origins, it is an irresistible collection...