Curious Words and Language: 50 Brain Teazers

Words have fascinated many great men and women for centuries; Dr Samuel Johnson said, ‘Words are the signs of ideas’, while Rudyard Kipling said, ‘Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.’ Words can be like music and entertain, they can sooth and excite and give pleasure; they can also inform, instruct and educate. They can fulfil dreams or inspire them. Above all they can be fun. The aim in this book is not toward high literary merit, but toward a stirring of the little grey cells in (I hope) an amusing way. The brain teasers here I have collected over the past 40 years, some of which I have contributed to a few magazines. Some are attributed, some adapted and some quite original. I don’t claim that any are truly mind bending, but some are more tricky than others. Professors of English might have a slight advantage with a few, but really all can be solved with a modest understanding of words and language, some applied thinking and some common sense. They are meant as entertainment; if you learn anything along the way, then that is a bonus.