Studies in Words

C.S. Lewis

Why I looked at this book

I came across this book when looking into the meanings the word bourgeois has had at different times and to different people. Although I hadn't heard of this book before, I have read quite a bit of C.S. Lewis's work, and while I don't always agree with it, I often find it thought provoking. I'm also interested in how we use words in tricky ways, putting forward our opinion as though it were obvious, without actually having a strong argument for it. Hence I thought that it would definitely be worth reading this book.

First impressions

Note: The sample at Amazon is short, but that from Google preview gives most of the introduction.
The introduction looks interesting, with a look at how the use of words such as furniture has changed over time (the word bourgeois is in the introduction). I'm still not sure about the main part of the book though. It does look like it goes into more detail for individual words, but that may mean that it is aimed at a more academic readership. I'll have to see.