A Garden of Words, Paperback - Martha Barnette
What's the linguistic link between the lovely gladiolus and a fierce gladiator? Did you know that the tulip gets its name from a kind of headwear? In this charming, witty volume, Martha Barnette leads a tour through the language of the garden, stopping along the way to coax out the many secrets that flowers have to tell about history, culture, psychology, folklore, and science. Barnette takes us through languages and across millennia in a charming style that, starting with words describing things we eat, turns out to offer endless food for thought.Barnette begins with the flower's name and immediately jumps off the neat garden path into the wild underbrush of mythology, history, folk tales and scientific investigation." --The New Yorker "Sheer etymological garden fun.