Going further

Lewis the philologist follows the history of some English words (nature, sad, wit, free, sense, simple, conscience, world, life) to show how their meanings have shifted and why we often misread old books.

Each chapter traces the successive meanings of a word through Greek, Latin, and English. Lewis demonstrates how a dominant meaning erases others, and warns against the “death” of words that become mere marks of approval or disapproval, such as when someone says “medieval” to mean “backward”.

• Original title — Studies in Words
• First published — 1960
• Genre — Philology, word history
• First English edition — Cambridge University Press, 1960; expanded edition in 1967
• Availability in bookstores — Not translated into French.
• Reading level — Demanding
• For whom — For students of languages and translators.
• Year — 1960

themes

• The meaning of words and their history.
• Careful reading of ancient texts.
• Words that die by becoming insults.

Famille

Literary criticism

Other names

• Studies in Words
• Philology, word history
• Literary criticism

Lewis the philologist follows the history of some English words (nature, sad, wit, free, sense, simple, conscience, world, life) to show how their meanings have shifted and why we often misread old books.

Quick facts

Going further

Level: Demanding. For students of languages and translators.

The book in a few lines

Each chapter traces the successive meanings of a word through Greek, Latin, and English. Lewis demonstrates how a dominant meaning erases others, and warns against the “death” of words that become mere marks of approval or disapproval, such as when someone says “medieval” to mean “backward”.

In Lewis’s workshop

Derived from his lectures at Cambridge.

What announces Narnia

Lewis’s attention to words is reflected in Narnia, where naming is a powerful act.

What a modern reader takes from it

Lewis’s warning about words that serve only to approve or disapprove (“medieval” meaning “backward”) is more relevant than ever. For translators and students, it is an exercise in attention: an old word does not always mean what we think it does.

His legacy

A specialist book, appreciated by linguists and translators.

Key ideas

• The meaning of words and their history.
• Careful reading of ancient texts.
• Words that die by becoming insults.

See also

• The Last of the Dinosaurs: A medievalist at Oxford and Cambridge, and what Narnia owes to his library
• From Puddleglum to Puddlegum: What the names of Narnia say in English, and what they become in French

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Words