Word A Day: A Romp through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English »

ANU GARG is the founder of wordsmith.org, a.k.a. A Word A Day, which he has maintained since 1994.

STUTI GARG is an entrepreneur and a founder of Namix, a trademark and naming solutions company. Anu and Stuti Garg live in Seattle.

"Anu Garg's many readers await their A Word A Day rations hungrily. Now at last here's a feast for them and other verbivores. Eat up!"
-Barbara Wallraff
Senior Editor at The Atlantic Monthly and author of Word Court

Praise for A Word a Day

"AWADies will be familiar with Anu Garg's refreshing approach to words: words are fun and they have fascinating histories. The people who use them have curious stories to tell too, and this collection incorporates some of the correspondence received by the editors at the AWAD site, from advice on how to outsmart your opponent in a duel (or even a truel) to a cluster of your favorite mondegreens."
-John Simpson, Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary

"A banquet of words! Feast and be nourished!"
-Richard Lederer, author of The Miracle of Language

Written by the founder of the wildly popular A Word A Day Web site (wordsmith.org), this collection of unusual, obscure, and exotic English words will delight writers, scholars, crossword puzzlers, and word buffs of every ilk. The words are grouped in intriguing categories that range from "Portmanteaux" to "Words That Make the Spell-Checker Ineffective." each entry includes a concise definition, etymology, and usage example-and many feature fascinating and hilarious commentaries by A Word A Day subscribers and the authors.

St. Petersburg Times

Only Anu Garg, the founder of Wordsmith.org, can make word facts this much fun.

Introduction.
Animal Words
Latin Terms
Words to Describe People - I
Lesser-Known Counterparts of Everyday Words
Words for Odds and Ends
Reduplicatives
Discover the Theme I
Gender-Specific Nouns
Verbs
Coined Words I
Back-Formations
Portmanteaux
Short Words
Words That Make Spell-Checker Ineffective
Names for Things
Words Formed by Metathesis
Words Not to Put On Your Resume
A Verbal Zoo
Words From Medicine
Semordnilap
Words With Color as Metaphor
Words that Make One Say, "I Didn't Know there was a Word for That!"
Wordpix I
Wordpix II
Wordpix III
Words with Offbeat Pluralizations
Words about Relations
Collective Nouns<
Positive Words
Discover the Theme II
Lesser-Known Synonyms of Everyday Words
Words from Speeches
Words That Contain the Vowels AEIOU
Once and Only Once
Coined Words II
English as a Global Language
Eponyms
Words about Words I
Uncommon Words with Common Suffixes
Words to Describe People II
Ordinal Words
Words for Odds and Ends
Red-Herring Words
Discover the Theme III
Newer Words in the Oxford English Dictionary
War of Words and Words of War
Words for Physical Characteristics
Used to Describe People Figuratively
Words Evolved from Folk Etymologies
Words about Words II
Words Formed Using Combining Forms
Words Formed Using Combining Forms
Words for Body Parts That Are Used Metaphorically
Red-Herring Words Revisited
Words from Nature's Oeuvre
Words about People Who Love Books
Mondegreens and Other Linguistic Faux Pas
Answers to the Discover the Theme Chapters
Bibliography
Index of Words