The Painted Word
Phil Cousineau
Viva Editions
Nonfiction, Reference/Writing
Themes: Encyclopedias
**+
Description
The English language offers a vast palette of colors for speakers and writers, yet most only use a scant handful of tired, drab hues. Even ordinary words often have extraordinary origins, making them more than mere gray smears on the literary canvas. Logophile Phil Cousineau shares many of his favorites here, with notes on origins and quotes demonstrating usage, along with paintings by Gregg Chadwick.
Review
I've been known to lose myself in dictionaries, distracted by oddball terms and words, so this looked like an enjoyable read. As promised, Cousineau offers many obscure and interesting words... and several not-so-obscure and not-so-interesting words. It often felt like he was more intersted in clever alliteration and wordplay than providing the promised information about each entry, sometimes forgetting to come to a point before moving on, leaving me baffled as to why he considered them for inclusion. Several of the quotes failed to utilize the mentioned word or term (the entry on "galore" includes an actress discussing the James Bond Character Pussy Galore), and I questioned his knowledge of pop culture. If the author messes up information that a quick Google search could provide, how am I to trust him on more esoteric topics, like the centuries-old trail of words through various languages and cultures? As for the paintings, I wasn't sure why they were included, as they added little to the experience. (They also looked dull on my Kindle's eInk screen... and no better on my Nook color tablet running the Kindle app.) While I always enjoy being introduced to new (or old, as the case may be) words, I found myself too annoyed by the writing to retain more than a few in my memory, which negates most of the reading experience here.