Which animal holds the record for having the most common names?

When and why did we stop calling giraffes "camel-leopards"?

Do mushrooms have anything to do with mush or rooms?

Why are dandelions named after lions' teeth?

How should you really pluralize "octopus"?


Find out how and why raccoons are named after their hands, squirrels after their tails and olives after their oil. Discover why "dog" is an etymological mystery and "bear" contains a hair-raising horror story.

Follow trails word history in the etymological excursion that is Into the Words. This book puts the fun in fungi, leaves language lovers contemplating forest for its trees, and reveals the wonderful stories hiding in our words for birds, beasts, insects, flowers, soil and everything in between.

Featuring both the origins of the names of different organisms, this book will captivate anyone who revels in both the glorious chaos and logic of the English language and the beauty and majesty of everything that lives on the planet Earth.