Mark Forsyth

Forsyth attended Winchester College in Winchester, Hampshire, England{{cite news|last1=Paton|first1=Aubrey|title=How to be a clever clogs|url=http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/books/2012/10/12/how-to-be-a-clever-clogs|access-date=18 January 2015|work=Times Live|publisher=Times Media Group|date=12 October 2012}} from 1990 to 1995.{{cite journal|last1=Garnett|first1=George|title=Mark Forsyth: Inky Fool|journal=The Insight|date=12 December 2013|volume=1|issue=3|page=4|publisher=Winchester College}} He also studied English Language & Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford University, from 1996{{cite journal|title=Mark Forsyth|journal=Contemporary Authors Online|date=12 December 2014|publisher=Gale Cengage Learning|location=Stamford, CT}}{{cite web|last1=Lofthouse|first1=Richard|title=Making Rhetoric Relevant|url=http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/features/making-rhetoric-relevant|website=Oxford Today|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=7 January 2015|date=4 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217190720/http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/features/making-rhetoric-relevant|archive-date=17 February 2015|url-status=dead}} to 1999.

As a self-described journalist, proofreader, ghostwriter and pedant,{{cite news|last1=McCrum|first1=Robert|authorlink1=Robert McCrum|title=Review: Books: The Inky Fool comes up with golden nuggets|work=The Observer|publisher=Guardian News & Media Limited|date=13 November 2011|location=London (UK)|page=42}} Forsyth started a blog called the Inky Fool in 2009{{cite web|last1=Colanduno|authorlink=Derek Colanduno|first1=Derek|title=More American than a Good Shag. Interview: Mark Forsyth|url=http://www.skepticality.com/more-american-than-a-good-shag/|website=Skepticality|access-date=4 January 2015|date=25 December 2012}}{{cite news|title=Time to rescue those useful old words from the dustbin|work=The Yorkshire Post|publisher=Johnston Press New Media|date=19 December 2012|location=Leeds (UK)}} as a forum to share his love of words. His posts often involve an exploration of words; where they come from and how they relate to each other. "Etymology is fun," Forsyth said in a Skepticality interview. "Some people talk about the true meaning. I just find it interesting and delightful and often just very, very funny. That's the main thing I love about etymology."

{{Main|The Etymologicon}}

The popularity of Inky Fool led to Forsyth's first book publishing deal{{cite news|last1=White|first1=Roland|title=Don't forget your bumbershoot: This lively book digs up the wonderfully colourful English vocabulary that has disappeared from daily use|newspaper=Sunday Times|publisher=News International Trading Limited|date=4 November 2012|location=London (UK)}} in 2011 with Icon Books.{{cite news|last1=O'Keeffe|first1=Alice|title=Mark Forsyth|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/profile/mark-forsyth|access-date=9 January 2015|work=The Book Seller|publisher=Bookseller Media Ltd|date=19 August 2011}}{{cite web|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language|url=http://www.iconbooks.com/blog/title/the-etymologicon/|website=Iconbooks.com|publisher=Icon Books|access-date=9 January 2015|date=11 March 2011}} In The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connection of The English Language, Forsyth explains the meanings and derivations of well-known words and phrases, and explores the strange connections between words{{cite news|title=The Etymologicon; Telegraph books. A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language - Mark Forsyth|work=The Daily Telegraph|issue=Edition 1|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=30 June 2012|location=London (UK)|page=30}} in a stream-of-consciousness fashion.{{cite news|last1=Schimke|first1=Karin|title=Mark Forsyth|work=Cape Times|publisher=Independent Online|date=27 April 2012|location=Cape Town, South Africa|page=10}} The book's title, originally called Point Blank Check Mate: The Inky Fool's Book of Word Association, references the poet John Milton who purportedly invented the word "etymologicon" to describe a book containing etymologies. The book's structure leads the reader to "unexpected coinages and devious linkages, sexy, learned and satisfyingly obscure."{{cite news|last1=Hardyment|first1=Christina|title=Audiobooks|work=The Times|publisher=NI Syndication Limited|date=9 June 2012|location=London, England}} It is, according to reviewer Karin Schimke, "a cursory run through history presented with a wry eye and a peculiar sense of humor." Reviewer Robert McCrum wrote: "Not since Eats, Shoots & Leaves has a book about language...attracted so much attention in bookshops, running through successive reprints." The Etymologicon was a Sunday Times No. 1 Bestseller in January 2012.{{cite news|title=Hardbacks|work=Sunday Times|publisher=News International Trading Limited|date=22 January 2012|location=London (UK)|page=32}}

While The Etymologicon falls into the category of edutainment, the examples Forsyth includes in the book are well researched and supported by evidence. His goal was to include as much scholarly information as "lightly" as possible. Forsyth researches words and phrases as far back to their original sources as he can find. "Often, the joy of the research," he said in a Chicago Tribune interview, "is finding examples of the original usages that have been lost for centuries. For example, humble pie used to be umble pie because the umbles were the innards of a deer (so it was the poor man's equivalent of venison pie). I actually found a recipe book from 1727 deep in the bowels of the British Library that gave instructions on how to make it. So I did. And it was delicious."{{cite news|last1=Stevens|first1=Heidi|title=Etymology, the mystery of Spam and other deep questions: Mark Forsyth's 'Etymologicon' explores roots and connections of phrases|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2012/09/26/etymology-the-mystery-of-spam-and-other-deep-questions/|access-date=18 January 2015|work=Chicago Tribune|date=26 September 2012}}

In The Etymologicon, Forsyth cautions against what he calls "the danger of inductive reasoning" when determining the commonality among diverse languages. Some patterns in language, he asserts, are mere coincidence and linguists meticulously document specific examples of word and sound changes to determine whether or not disparate languages are, indeed, connected.

The Illustrated Etymologicon (Icon Books) won the Trade Illustrated award at The 2022 British Book Design and Production Awards (BBDPA) on 18 January 2023.Kemp-Habib, Alice, [https://www.thebookseller.com/news/folio-wins-big-at-british-book-design-and-production-awards "Folio wins big at British Book Design and Production Awards"], The Bookseller, 20 January 2023. Retrieved March 18, 2023.

{{Main|The Horologicon}}

The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language is Forsyth's second book and contains "weird words for familiar situations."{{cite news|title=Mark Forsyth's Ternion Set|work=The Daily Telegraph|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=15 November 2014|location=London (UK)|page=9}} Many of these words are no longer in use, such as snollygoster, durgeon and frumples. To avoid having his list of words "form what is technically known as a dictionary," Forsyth arranges The Horologicon or Book of Hours{{cite news|last1=Knowsley|first1=Jo|title=History - Word play for the day: resources|work=The Times Educational Supplement 5024|publisher=TSL Education Ltd|date=21 December 2012|location=London (UK)}} according to the hours in a day:{{cite news|title=The Horologicon: Telegraph Books.|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=1 December 2012|location=London (UK)|page=15}}{{cite web|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=Mark Forsyth's top 10 lost words|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/09/mark-forsyth-the-horologicon-top-10-lost-words|website=The Guardian|access-date=18 January 2015|date=9 October 2013}} from dawn, through breakfast, commuting, office life, shopping, going out drinking and stumbling home. Forsyth believes some of these words should be revived: "Never mind the puzzled looks," he says, "just use them. Throw them into conversation as often as possible."

A reviewer in The Daily Telegraph wrote: "From ante-jentacular to snudge by way of quafftide and wamblecropt, at last you can say, with utter accuracy, exactly what you mean."

The Wall Street Journal said the book “confirmed his aptitude for making a journey in the linguistic backwoods seem both leisurely and instructive.”Hitchings, Henry, [https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-elements-of-eloquence-by-mark-forsyth-1414713336 "Recipes for Killer One-Liners"], Wall Street Journal, Oct 30, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

{{Main|The Elements of Eloquence}}

The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase is Forsyth's third book. Described as a writer's tool-kit or recipe book,{{cite news|title=Author evening: learning the tricks of rhetoric|work=The West Sussex Gazette|publisher=Johnston Press New Media|date=10 December 2013|location=Horsham (UK)}} The Elements of Eloquence outlines 38 rhetorical figures (e.g., hyperbole, epizeuxis, catachresis) that, according to Forsyth, can be learned by almost anybody.{{cite news|last1=Moore|first1=Charles|authorlink1=Charles Moore (journalist)|title='If you have nothing to say, at least say it well'|work=Telegraph.co.uk|publisher=Telegraph Media Group Limited|date=18 November 2013|location=London (UK)}} Forsyth uses examples from William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Winston Churchill, Lord Tennyson, Lewis Carroll, Quentin Tarantino, John Lennon and Katy Perry{{cite news|title=The archaeology of language|work=Sunday Star Times|publisher=Fairfax Media: Fairfax New Zealand Limited|date=15 December 2013|location=Wellington, New Zealand|page=E.31}}{{cite news|last1=Evans|first1=David|title=The Elements of Eloquence|newspaper=The Independent|publisher=Independent Print Ltd|date=14 September 2014|location=London (UK)|page=20}} to reveal "the secrets" behind memorable lines and phrases. One reviewer wrote: "It's doubtful that if more people knew Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence, the world would be a better place, but it would certainly sound a great deal better."

A reviewer on The Wall Street Journal said that Forsyth "is adept at adding spice to received wisdom and popularizing the findings of academic linguists."Hitchings, Henry, [https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-elements-of-eloquence-by-mark-forsyth-1414713336 "Recipes for Killer One-Liners"], Wall Street Journal, Oct 30, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

Forsyth's essay "Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted" was a special commission for Independent Booksellers Week.{{cite web|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted|url=http://www.iconbooks.com/blog/title/the-unknown-unknown/|website=Iconbooks.com|publisher=Icon Books|access-date=9 January 2015|date=9 April 2014}}{{cite news|title=Bookseller's chart|newspaper=The Western Morning News|date=19 July 2014|location=Plymouth (UK)|page=19}} and celebrates the discoveries one can make at independent bookshops.{{cite news|title=The Unknown Unknown, by Mark Forsyth, book review: Where to find answers to questions you didn't ask|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-unknown-unknown-by-mark-forsyth-book-review-where-to-find-answers-to-questions-you-didnt-ask-9571302.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706154213/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-unknown-unknown-by-mark-forsyth-book-review-where-to-find-answers-to-questions-you-didnt-ask-9571302.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 July 2014|access-date=9 January 2015|work=The Independent|publisher=Independent.co.uk|date=9 January 2015}} In his essay, Forsyth makes the case for the lost pleasures of undirected browsing{{cite news|last1=Parris|first1=Matthew|authorlink1=Matthew Parris|title=Matthew Parris: The lost pleasures of reading a proper newspaper|work=The Spectator|publisher=The Spectator (1828) Limited|date=15 November 2014|location=London (UK)}} that cannot be achieved with an internet search.{{cite news|last1=Lee|first1=John|title=England; Bibliophile's London haunts|work=Los Angeles Times|date=26 October 2014|location=Los Angeles, CA|page=L.6}} Reviewer Matthew Parris wrote:

: As any sub-editor knows, and too few columnists acknowledge, a good headline can say it all. Mark Forsyth, whose passion is words, and whose book, The Etymologicon, proved probably the best-selling title in history that nobody can pronounce, has written an essay in booklet form to adorn the tables of Britain's bookshops. Its title page tells you succinctly why it should. The Unknown Unknown, it's called, and its subtitle is "Bookshops and the delight of not getting what you wanted." Not since I engaged a company called Difficult Access Cranes Ltd has the point been made before, as it were, you've even opened the tin.{{cite news|last1=Parris|first1=Matthew|authorlink1=Matthew Parris|title=Underwater opera had me weeping buckets|work=The Times|date=2 July 2014|location=London (UK)|page=24}}

A Christmas Cornucopia: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions was published on 3 November 2016.

A Short History of Drunkenness came out on 6 September 2018.

The book is a popular scientific description of the history of mankind's relationship with alcoholic beverages. The author begins with the Paleolithic period, and then examines the cultures of such countries and epochs as Sumer, ancient Egypt, the Aztec Empire, antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Muslim world, the Wild West, the Prohibition era, and Russia. The descriptions are accompanied by short excursions into history, anthropology, and sociology.

The New York Times Book Review called it an "entertaining bar-hop through the past 10,000 years".Perrottet, Tony, [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/books/review/mark-forsyth-short-history-of-drunkenness.html "Sloshed, Hammered, Blotto — We’ve Been Doing It for Ages"], The New York Times, May 30, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2023.

Forsyth wrote the introduction for the new edition of Collins English Dictionary.{{cite news|title=New words make new Collins dictionary|url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/new-words-make-new-collins-dictionary-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=73389&NewsCatID=386|access-date=18 January 2015|work=Hurriyet Daily News|date=23 October 2014|location=Istanbul}} In it, he notes: "There are few pastimes in life as pleasurable and profitable as reading the dictionary. The plot is, of course, rather weak, and the moral of the whole thing slightly elusive; but for my money there isn't another book that comes close to it."{{cite news|title=Adorkable new words make new Collins dictionary|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-29725013|access-date=18 January 2015|work=BBC News Scotland|publisher=BBC|date=22 October 2014}}

He also wrote a short chapter, "Who Named All the Cities",{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Gemma Elwin|title=Big questions from little people--and simple answers from great minds|date=2012|publisher=Ecco|location=New York|isbn=978-0-062-22322-7|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780062223227|access-date=18 January 2015|url-access=registration}} for a book compiled by Gemma Elwin Harris called Big Questions from Little People Answered by Some Very Big People.{{cite news|last1=Lovegrove|first1=James|title=Children's books: Big Questions From Little People...Answered by Some Very Big People|work=Financial Times|date=6 October 2012|location=London (UK)|page=10}}

• A Christmas Cornucopia, BBC Radio 4 (18 December 2016)
• Lost Words and Secret Connections, BBC Radio 4 (13 September 2016)
• Why Read Dictionaries with David Astle and Mark Forsyth, Radio National (26 May 2013){{cite news|last1=Astle|first1=David|title=Why Read Dictionaries with David Astle and Mark Forsyth|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/weekendarts/2013-05-26/4693780?site=sydney|access-date=18 January 2015|work=Radio National Weekend Arts|publisher=ABC|date=26 May 2013|location=Sydney, Australia}}
• What's a snollygoster? A short lesson in political speak, TED talk (August, 2012)
• Do we overuse "literally"?, BBC Radio 4 (12 March 2012){{cite web|last1=Humphrys|first1=John|authorlink1=John Humphrys|title=Do we overuse 'literally'?|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9704000/9704539.stm|website=BBC Radio 4|access-date=9 January 2015|date=12 March 2012}}
• Painting the Forth Bridge "finished", BBC Radio 4 (9 December 2011){{cite web|last1=Humphreys|first1=John|author-link1=John Humphrys|title=Painting the Forth Bridge 'finished'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9658000/9658401.stm|website=BBC Radio 4|access-date=9 January 2015|date=9 December 2011}}

• The Illustrated Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language (Icon Books, 2021), {{ISBN|978-1-785-78785-0}}
• A Short History of Drunkenness (Penguin Books Ltd, 2017), {{ISBN|978-0-241-29768-1}}
• The Unknown Unknown: Bookshops and the Delight of Not Getting What You Wanted (Icon Books, 2014), {{ISBN|978-1-848-31784-0}}
• The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase (Icon Books, 2013), {{ISBN|978-1-848-31621-8}}, and (Berkley Trade, 2014), {{ISBN|978-0-425-27618-1}}
• Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language (Icon Books, 2012), {{ISBN|978-1-848-31415-3}}, and (Berkley Trade, 2013), {{ISBN|978-0-425-26437-9}}
• The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language (Icon Books, 2011), {{ISBN|978-1-848-31307-1}} and (Berkley Trade, 2012) {{ISBN|978-0-425-26079-1}}

• "Where to find answers to questions you didn't ask" (The Independent, 29 June 2014){{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=Where to find answers to questions you didn't ask|work=The Independent|publisher=Independent Print Ltd|date=29 June 2014|location=London (UK)|page=18}}
• "The Poetry of the Trading Floor, Going Beyond Bears and Bulls" (The New York Times, 14 April 2014){{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=The Poetry of the Trading Floor, Going Beyond Bears and Bulls|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/business/international/the-poetry-of-the-trading-floor-going-beyond-bears-and-bulls.html|access-date=3 January 2015|work=The New York Times|date=14 April 2014|page=2}}
• "Bloody 'L{{'"}} (The Independent, 15 February 2014){{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=Bloody 'L'|work=The Independent|publisher=Independent Print Ltd|date=15 February 2014|location=London (UK)|page=9}}
• "Save the soundbite! MARK FORSYTH" (The Spectator, 23 November 2013)
• "The Turkey's Turkey Connection" (The New York Times, 27 November 2013){{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=The Turkey's Turkey Connection|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/opinion/the-turkeys-turkey-connection.html?_r=1&|access-date=17 January 2015|work=The New York Times|date=27 November 2013}}
• "OMG, Cupid - this is the written word's golden age: Far from destroying literacy, the social media have given writing a new importance, especially in the art of wooing, says Mark Forsyth" (Sunday Times, 28 October 2012)
• "Tin tacks, syntax and Chinese sensibility: What a nation puts in its dictionaries tells us far more about it than history books ever can" (The Daily Telegraph, 17 July 2012){{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=Tin tacks, syntax and Chinese sensibility: What a nation puts in its dictionaries tells us far more about it than history books ever can|work=The Daily Telegraph|publisher=Daily Telegraph|date=17 July 2012|location=London (UK)|page=18}}

• "The Servant" (The Spectator, 13 December 2014){{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=The Servant|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/story/9395692/the-servant/|access-date=17 January 2015|work=The Spectator|publisher=The Spectator (1828) Ltd|date=13 December 2014}}

• "When ink-stained etymologists are being jetted around the world and interviewed on television you know that something has gone horribly, horribly awry."{{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=OMG, Cupid - this is the written word's golden age: Far from destroying literacy, the social media have given writing a new importance, especially in the art of wooing, says Mark Forsyth|work=Sunday Times|publisher=News International Trading Limited|date=28 October 2012|location=London (UK)|page=7}}
• "Rhetoric, classically speaking, is the whole art of persuasion. Everything from your argument to your hand gestures, right up to the argumentum ad baculum or argument by stick, which involves hitting somebody until they agree with you. But in the age of the soundbite, it's a much simpler business. Gone are the logical proofs, and the structure of an argument. What's left are the rhetorical tricks that can be applied to one sentence, the pullquote. Kennedy knew this. All you have to do is take the first half of the sentence and say it backwards and you're the hero of the Free World. That's chiasmus."{{cite news|last1=Forsyth|first1=Mark|title=Save the soundbite! MARK FORSYTH|work=The Spectator|publisher=The Spectator (1928) Limited|date=23 November 2013|location=London (UK)}}
• "What I love about etymology is not the grand theories but the strange back alleys and extraordinary and ridiculous journeys that words take."{{cite news|last1=Copping|first1=Jasper|title=Idioms in a nutshell|work=The Ottawa Citizen|publisher=Infomart, a division of Postmedia Network Inc|date=5 November 2011|location=Ottawa, Ontario|page=B.3}}
• Of his book Horologicon, Forsyth said: "It is for the words too beautiful to live long, too amusing to be taken seriously, too precise to become common, too vulgar to survive polite society, or too poetic to thrive in the age of prose."
• "There's absolutely no point in historians getting indignant about language. It's never going to stop changing – they're trying to hold back the tide like the Luddites."{{cite news|last1=de Castella|first1=Tom|title=Are you a Luddite?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17770171|access-date=9 January 2015|work=BBC News Magazine|date=19 April 2012}}
• "Politics and advertising have always had a lot in common. They are both despised. They are both necessary if you want to shift the public. And they both rely on the consumer not knowing the figures of rhetoric."
• "Only in the bookshop, in the Good Bookshop, can you stumble across the book that you never knew you wanted, that will answer all the questions that you never knew to ask. It is there, waiting, but you cannot find it by searching. You must find it by chance. Somewhere on the shelf at the back, over to the right."
• "There is more to life than the figures of rhetoric; I just don't think there is much more."

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://blog.inkyfool.com/ The Inky Fool Blog]

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