Paperback: The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth (Icon, £8.99)

I really love books about words, and this is a particularly good one. To write a good book about words, and their origins, you have to pick the right ones and cut through their history with panache.

For instance, the Latin word for witness was testis. From this word, we get protest, detest, contest and testicle — a man’s testicles “testify to his virility”.

Forsyth takes words and draws us into their, and our, murky history.

Our word toxic derives from the Greek word toxicos, meaning “pertaining to archery”, because Greek archers dipped their arrows in poison. Our word feisty comes from fice, an old word for flatulence.