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Michael Quinion | |
|---|---|
 Michael Quinion in his office | |
| Born | 1942 (age 83–84) United Kingdom |
| Occupations | Etymologist, writer |
Michael Brian Quinion (bornc. 1942)[1] is a Britishetymologist and writer.[2] He ran World Wide Words, a website devoted tolinguistics. He graduated fromPeterhouse, Cambridge,[3] where he studiedphysical sciences and after which he joinedBBC radio as a studio manager.
Quinion has contributed extensively to theOxford English Dictionary as well as theOxford Dictionary of New Words (Second Edition, 1996). He has since writtenOlogies and Isms[2] (a 2002 dictionary of affixes) andPort Out, Starboard Home: And Other Language Myths (2004), published in the US asBallyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins[n 1]
His most recent book isGallimaufry: A Hodgepodge of Our Vanishing Vocabulary (2006). He wrote two books about orcharding and cidermaking, one titledCidermaking (published byShire Publications), the other,A Drink for Its Time, published by the Cider Museum inHereford, where he served as curator.[4]
Quinion is the author and webmaster of World Wide Words, a site that documents the meaning and derivation of English language words and phrases. It covers a wide range of issues, includingetymology,grammar,neologisms, writing style and book reviews. This site explores International English from a British viewpoint. The website features a large database of word-related topics, weird words, articles on word and phrase origins, and answers to questions from site visitors. It also offers a free weekly newsletter, which contains the latest additions to the database one week before they are posted on the website. The time delay allows for newsletter subscribers to respond with additional insights and comments, some of which may be included on the posted articles.
On 18 October 2014, Quinion announced that in future his newsletters would be published less frequently because writing a scheduled weekly newsletter had become increasingly arduous. In early 2017, Quinion sent out a message to newsletter subscribers stating that for unspecified personal reasons he was suspending publication of World Wide Words. Then on 4 March 2017, Quinion released to subscribers confirmation that the newsletter would be immediately permanently ended due to his personal circumstances as well as his own changing personal interests.[5]
A recurring theme in Quinion's articles is the criticism offalse etymology. Such popular etymologies often have the effect of obscuring the true origins of a word or expression by providing a misleading and often unsubstantiated story explaining its origin. Quinion'sPort Out, Starboard Home (Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds in the US) deals with many such etymologies.[6]
