all’s said and done In her witty account of the origins of many English words and expressions, Deborah Warren educates as she entertains―and entertain she does, leading her readers through the amazing labyrinthian history of related words. “Language,” she writes, “is all about mutation.” Read here about the first meanings of common words and phrases, including dessert, vodka, lunatic, tulip, dollar, bikini, peeping tom, peter out, and devil’s advocate. A former Latin teacher, Warren is a gifted poet and a writer of great playfulness. is a cornucopia of joyful learning and laughter. Did you know… Lord Cardigan was a British aristocrat and military man known for the sweater jackets he sported. A lying lawyer might —yank his wig down across his face. In the original tale of Cinderella, her slippers were made of (“fur”)—which in the orally-told story mistakenly turned into the homonym (“glass”). Like evolved from Italian , “things to be washed.” The plant was used as a clothes freshener. It smells better than, say, the misspelled Downy Unstopable with the ad that touts its “feisty freshness,” unaware that evolved from Middle English —fart.