From the December 2007 edition of Quill & Quire – Canada’s Magazine of Book News and Reviews

Magazine page scanned below for authenticity, text reproduced underneath for search engine consumption and easy readability. [my comments in square brackets]

Though these two engaging new word books should set logophiles atwitter, their broad appeal and lack of pretension make them attractive to a far broader audience as well.

[she discusses Howard Richler’s book Can I Have A Word With You]

Charles Hodgson’s Carnal Knowledge is presented in a similar dictionary style, although it focuses exclusively on words pertaining to the body. Unlike your typical anatomy textbook writer, Hodgson has a wonderfully chatty way of approaching his subject matter, which inevitably ranges from the straightforward to the salacious. The section on the face offers us such delights as the “gnathion” (the lowest point of the chin) and the “mucocutaneous ridge” (the line where the lip becomes the skin of the face). And who knew the term “hooter” was originally slang for “nose” and, later on, “penis,” before its current plural incarnation?

Prurient readers, of course, will rush straight for the chapter entitled “Below the Belt,” where they will learn that the term “testicle” is rooted in the Latin word testis, or “witness.” Its current use is purportedly from the Romans, who would place a hand on their scrotum instead of a holy book to take an oath (i.e., “testify”).

A perusal of these two books might lead one to conclude that the evolution of the English language resembles a massive game of telephone [tag], begat by Angles, Saxons, Norse, and other marauders. One might also conclude that it is the very bastardizations eschewed by the prescriptivists that make the language so rich. [Right on!]

– Emily Donaldson