Twentieth Century Words John Ayto
This book presents an overview of the development of English vocabulary from 1900 to the present day. It is a wonderful collection of words that define the twentieth century. A chapter is devoted to each decade of the twentieth century, with each one divided into two parts. The first part is an introductory essay setting the background against which the following new words came into being, and areas of particular importance or interest will be highlighted. Following this is a dictionary-style presentation of vocabulary that came into English during that decade. These words are listed alphabetically, and entries will include the earliest recorded date of each word. There is also a Chronology which highlights the key entries for each decade and gives an overview of the century's history and developments.