#inky fool

[shakespearenews]

On words, phrases, grammar, rhetoric and prose

Clown: Why, he will look upon his boot and sing; mend the ruff and sing; ask questions and sing; pick his teeth and sing. I know a man that had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a song.

“All of which brings us full circle to that line from All's Well That Ends Well which is the very first recorded example of selling something for a song. When the melancholy man of whom the clown speaks sold a goodly manor for a song, he was exchanging his real estate for a piece of sheet music because he needed something new to sing”

[thehorologicon-blog]

Mark Forsyth's wonderful book The Etymologicon is a Kindle Daily Deal today! Don't miss out on the chance to discover the strange connections between words for only 99p! Download it here and find out more about it here. 

[thehorologicon-blog]

Mark Forsyth will be on tour as part of Independent Booksellers Week! He will be visiting Mostly Books, Foyles Charing Cross (for the Great Bookshop Debate), RHS Garden Wisley (Arts Fest), David's Bookshop, Jaffé & Neale Bookshop and Café & Red Lion Books. Mark Forsyth is the author of this year's IBW Booksellers Collectibles essay, The Unknown Unknown, available from independent bookshops on 28th June.  For more details visit iconbooks.com/events.

[thehorologicon-blog]

So, not quite the useless conjunction we like to believe | Mark Forsyth

Mark Forsyth is in the Telegraph today talking about Mark Zuckerberg's tendency to begin his sentences with the word 'so'!

[thehorologicon-blog]

The Elements of Eloquence

[thehorologicon-blog]

The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller The Etymologicon sprung from Mark Forsyth’s Inky Fool blog on the strange connections between words in 2011, followed by The Horologicon, about the most extraordinary words in the English Language, and The Elements of Eloquence, a book on rhetoric and the importance of pure style. The Macmillan Dictionary Love English Awards is a public voting contest where readers can nominate and cast their votes for their favourite blog and website about the English language. 

The Inky Fool has been nominated for Favourite Blog about the English Language! If you’re a fan of Inky Fool as much as we are, consider voting for it! 

[thehorologicon-blog]

Vote for Inky Fool in the Macmillan Dictionary Love English Awards The Sunday Times Number One Bestseller The Etymologicon sprung from Mark Forsyth’s Inky Fool blog on the strange connections between words in 2011, followed by The Horologicon, about the most extraordinary words in the English Language, and The Elements of Eloquence, a book on rhetoric and the importance of pure style. The Macmillan Dictionary Love English Awards is a public voting contest where readers can nominate and cast their votes for their favourite blog and website about the English language. If you’re a fan of Inky Fool as much as we are, consider nominating it as your favourite blog! 

[mad5am]

Ogden Nash

The wombat lives across the seas, Among the far Antipodes. He may exist on nuts and berries, Or then again, on missionaries; His distant habitat precludes Conclusive knowledge of his moods, But I would not engage the wombat In any form of mortal combat.