English Words: History and Structure (Book Review‪)‬

English words: History and structure. By Robert Stockwell and Donka Minkova. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. 209 plus downloadable sections. The latest mutual enterprise of Stockwell and Minkova sets out to provide a remedy to a problem raised almost a decade ago by Yakov Malkiel in his preface to Etymology. Malkiel expressed his deep discontent at what he phrased as "the policy of rejection" towards etymological issues exercised by universities (particularly in the US) and linguistic journals' editors (Malkiel 1993: xi). Particularly disturbing was to Malkiel the fact that while all other branches of linguistics received a fair amount of attention both in university curricula and published inquiries, etymology remained neglected for no good reason. As we learn from the introduction to English words." History and structure this "policy of rejection" is unfortunately still alive: "At the beginning of the twenty first century ... it is extremely rare for students entering college to have a clear idea what Latin is ...". Acknowledging the sad facts, the authors "... take the view that people cannot call themselves 'educated' who do not have a minimal acquaintance with the history and structure of words in their own language" (Stockwell and Minkova 2001: 1).