For decades, the "On Language" column ran in The New York Times, and William Safire was one of its chief contributors. "Take My Word for It" is a collection of Safire's appearances in "On Language" from the 1980s.
Safire's background was in politics, and some columns here look at public affairs and economics, but there are also columns on vanity license plates, middle initials, euphemisms, and dozens of other wide-ranging topics. Also included are responses from readers, a few famous but mostly ordinary citizens, from all around the country and all over the world.
Especially fascinating are the instances in which Safire traces words to the times and places where they first appeared. Some words change meaning over time, and the author looks at several of those cases. Regional differences in speech are a topic of almost endless interest, and there are columns here on the differences in how some words are used in various regions of America.
This volume teaches as well as entertains, pointing out areas in which words that are similar to each other but with different shades of meaning are misused and corrects the reader concerning commonly misunderstood words such as "fulsome." Punctuation rules and pronunciation are also touched on.
"Take My Word for It" is a superb collection of columns by one of the greatest wordsmiths of his generation and would be a great read for any language enthusiast.
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