We Recommend

In 1824, the English theologian and geologist William Buckland wrote a description of a long dead animal he called a Megalosaurus or “great lizard.” Working from a 166 million year old piece of fossilized jawbone, Buckland imagined an amphibious creature about 60 feet in length and weighing upwards of 3 tons. His description and the naming of Iguanodon just a year later inspired biologist Richard Owen to coin the term Dinosauria to describe this emerging clade of the evolutionary tree. 

The author's biographical statement on the back flap of the jacket says that Nuttall has "had a lot of practice at making old words interesting," and it shows. I'd dare say reading this was even fun, along with being fascinating and very pointedly feminist. In this book, she explores the history of English words relating to women, to their bodies, social roles, and more. Specifically, she explores how our language has been shaped by patriarchal attitudes and has in turn worked to reinforce sexism.