This book is a fine compilation of the best essays published in the periodical "Verbatim: The Language Quarterly". The book is devoted to celebrating the bizarre aspects of language (mostly concerning English). Most of the essays are humorous in nature, though many of them are educational and eye opening. Topics such as dialects, dictionaries, grammar, jargon, naming, obscenities, and wordplay are covered in great detail. The section on non-English is especially interesting, which explains Japanese onomatopoeia, Spanish dialects and an odd Welsh dictionary. An essential book for linguists, though most people should find this book enjoyable.

I got this book as a Christmas present from my roommate but I didn't start to read it until after Easter. But I'm really glad I did. It was both funny and thought-provoking. There is so much most people don't know about the language we use every day. It was really interesting, and the articles are short and not technical at all so you don't get bogged down.
As I read through it I got really into it and was going to give a copy to my Dad for Father's Day. But then there was a whole article (really funny!) about new uses of the f-word and that's not really for parental units...my roommate said her parents loved it, though.
However, I liked this book so much that I googled the magazine Verbatim and subscribed!

This is a fantastic book for the logophile! It contains plenty of odd, unusual, rare, and otherwise interesting words, along with their definition. A pleasant layout and humorous illustrations keep the book on the lighter side. While there are a number of such books available, this stands out with supplementary materials such as "How to create you own weird and wonderful words," "A Webliography of Weird and Wonderful Word Sites," and "The Logophile's Bibliography."

My only complaint is that there is no pronunciation included with each entry. This is a relatively small issue, and the only thing keeping the book from a 5-star rating.

Word lovers should find this book highly entertaining. The selected words include some of my personal favorites, and a great many words completely new to me, some of which are new favorites. The illustrations are ho-hum and may lead many readers to wish the space had been used for more words. Luckily, the compiler plans a collection of weirder and wonderfuller words, which will be given some prosaic title by the publisher.

One caveat: there are some racy entries, not enough to spur sales, but enough to give the book an X rating in some households and a PG-13 in many. Too bad, as the book would otherwise be an excellent inspiration for many a young wordsmith. Perhaps the compiler can be persuaded to gather a similar collection of words, like "googol", of interest to children and adults alike. If only this collection had been just a shade more verecund!

I'll let you buy the book if you want to know the precise meanings of logodaedaly and verecund.

I saw this book in the New York Times Language column and thought it would make a great gift for my dad, who loves words and crossword puzzles. I started flipping thru it and got hooked. The words aren't boring or stuffy at all, even though a lot of them are long (my favorite was zedonk, the chlid of a donkey and a zebra) and the cartoons are really funny, too.

I only wish there were more words in it. Maybe they'll do a Weird Words 2. I'm going to keep this one and order another one for my dad.