Stuff your stockings this holiday season with these lively new books about language. Jess Zafarris reveals the delightful backstories of hundreds of words in "Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins ...

A boy unearths a treasure trove of adjectives, and a strange word discovered by a scholar becomes an overnight sensation. From “A Chest Full of Words.”Credit...Rebecca Gugger and Simon Röthlisberger ...

Jess Zafarris began her journey into word nerdery in college, where her English literature coursework introduced her to the Old English of “Beowulf” and Chaucer’s Middle English. While pursuing her ...