Why aren't bald eagles bald? What's the link between gnomes and being enormous? What connects a Christmas carol with the Russian for street? The answers can all be found in the history of the words themselves, and In Word Routes Alexander Tulloch gives us the fascinating stories behind more than five hundred of them.<BR>He traces the routes of English words through time and across the globe. He reveals the surprising, amusing twists, turns and encounters between words on their long journeys into modern English. For instance, the Keres-Greek goddesses of destruction who haunted Homeric battlefields dressed in blood-soaked robes - would probably be a little miffed to learn that the only decay with which they are synonymous is tooth decay, or caries.<BR>Neither a straightforward dictionary of etymology nor a linear history of language, Word Routes is an entertaining alphabetical guide to the stories behind many everyday words. It is an ideal book for journalists, teachers, historians or anyone interested in the fascinating story of the English language.