Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Oxford Quick Reference)

Ologies and Isms: A Dictionary of Word Beginnings and Endings (Oxford Quick Reference)

The codebook has arrived! Some of the most common--and often misinterpreted--parts of English language construction are prefixes and suffixes. Ologies and Isms unlocks the meaning of these building blocks that make up so much of our modern medical and technical vocabulary. In accessible, plain language this book explains what each affix means. With its huge store of examples--over 10,000 across 1,250 entries--this ready reference illustrates the numerous ways that each is used in everyday speech and writing. Organized in a handy A to Z format, the book features a full Introduction, a section with definitions of technical terms, and a selective thematic index. Anyone (and there are quite a few of us) who has puzzled over 'antidisestablishmentarianism' or struggled with 'histopathologist' will welcome this volume for the relief it provides. Michael Quinion has had a varied career, including BBC studio manager and producer in radio, heritage interpreter, freelance audio-visual scriptwriter and producer, museum curator, tourism consultant, and computer software writer. He has been a freelance researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary since 1992, focussing particularly on new words, and is now also a technical consultant for it. He contributed about a third of the entries to the Second Edition of the Oxford Dictionary of New Words.