Written in Stone by Christopher Stevens: Goodreads Review

I highly recommend “Written in Stone” by Christopher Stevens to anyone interested in language, well Indo-European languages. Each of the 17 chapters gives us on average 5 Indo-European words (verbs); for each word, the author tells stories or weaves narratives to illustrate the English words that come from those ancient words. Sometimes the narratives are too long or a bit silly, but it’s still fascinating to see how so many hundreds of English words (his examples) have roots that go back 6,000 to 8,000 years. Take, for example, the Indo-European words “bhleu” to blow. Steven writes, “Latin softened the “bh” to “f”: the verb flier means too flow. It gives us fluent, fluid, and flush, as well as fluctuate, which means flowing back and forth….To have influence is to flow through the corridors of power. Then there’s affluent, which is overflowing with money…” You get the point. Sometimes, one has to think about the connection between the ancient and modern meanings (here, the shift from “blowing” to “flowing.”) But usually, it’s not rocket science. To me, at least, reading this book was about the best nerdy fun I’ve had in a while.