In this entertaining history world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on one hundred words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the word "roe" was written down on the bone ankle of a roe deer in the fifth century. Featuring ancient words ('loaf'), cutting-edge terms that reflect our world ('twittersphere'), indispensable words that shape our tongue ("and", "what"), and more fanciful words ("fopdoodle"), David Crystal takes readers on a tour of the winding byways of our language via the rude, the obscure, and the downright surprising.