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Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Dictionary)

Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Chambers Harrap
ISBN: 0550142304
ISBN-13: 9780550142306
Released: 06 Aug 1999
RRP: £30.00
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Excellent resource. - By: T. Holmewood, 20 Jun 2007
This is an excellent etymology dictionary. If I could sum it up with a single signifier, it would be CLEAR!

I compared this with the OED in-store & found that the clarity of entries - definition, history - in the Chambers by far exceeded that of its competitor - especiallly its minimal use of abbreviations (of which the OED was laden). Not only does the perspicuity of its entries place it above the OED, the Chambers' clear typeset, complimented by its leaf quality, elevated it even further over that of its ugly other, whose use of some obscenely obscure Romanesque font reallly didn't flatter its crude sheets of recycled Financial Times.

I would strongly advise this for those who are untrained in linguistics and/or philology. The OED retails at twice the price of Chambers, & from my perspective is 'clearly' inferior. This reference book will - for a long time to come - have its place by my bedside.

OED = Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology
Correction of a false statement - By: D. Brodsky, 03 Dec 2004
This is the first review I have written, but I felt it necessary to correct a false statement in another review, particuarly since 28 of 32 people found the review (which gave the book only 1 star) helpful. Specificallly,

QUOTE A lot of the words don't go back to the real origin. "Street' for example is said to be derived from the Latin "Strata" or "paved road", when the Latin actuallly comes from the Semitic, "Serat" for "straight road".UNQUOTE

Semitic "Serat" (also Arabic "Sirat") comes from Latin (via Greek as an intermediary) not the other way around as asserted by the reviewer. There is simply no doubt about this. As pointed out in the Chambers Dictionary, "Strata" is the past participle of the Latin verb STERNERE ("to lay down", "to spread out") which shares a common INDO-EUROPEAN origin with the Germanic root which is the basis of English STREW. I have not seen ANY etymological dictionary that has a different explanation, & I have consulted authoritative ones in English, French, Spanish, Italian & German. In English, this origin is confirmed by, among others, (i) the Oxford English Dictionary, (ii) the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

A second comment of the same reviewer was

QUOTE The dictionary also lists many languages that use a specific word without telling us about the source of the word, which is what etymology is about.UNQUOTE

In fact, my impression is that the Chambers Dictionary gives far more information than other comparable etymological dictionaries in terms of the ultimate roots of words. Taking a word at random, for "make", Old English macian is traced back through Old Saxon makon to Proto-Germanic *makojanan from the Indo-European root *mag-. It is also shown to be cognate with Old High German mahhon, Old Frisian makia, Greek magenai ("to be kneaded, be molded") & mageus ("baker"), Old Slavic mazati ("anoint"), among others.

The Chambers Dictionary is one of the best I have seen, particularly in view of its not unreasonable price.

Terrible.. Horrible.. - By: , 14 Feb 2002
I was very disappointed with this dictionary. A lot of the words don't go back to the real origin. "Street' for example is said to be derived from the Latin "Strata" or "paved road", when the Latin actuallly comes from the Semitic, "Serat" for "straight road". The dictionary also lists many languages that use a specific word without telling us about the source of the word, which is what etymology is about. The content is completely unsatisfying & misleading. The book is also too big & heavy.
A fascinating dictionary - By: , 11 Dec 2001
This is a dictionary you will not want to put away & is extremely user-friendly.
an informative reference explaining how words originated - By: david_cash@totalise.co.uk, 19 Dec 2000
This is an impecably researched book & makes fascinating reading. It explains how the words we use today originated & when.

My only criticism of the book is that it has adopted American spellings of words in certain cases, e.g. smolder, rather than smoulder.

But it is competatively priced against the other etymology dictionaries. So, you pays your money & you takes your choice.