Are you a word freak?  If you answer yes to that question you're probably the type who'll try anything to increase or exhibit your word proficiency from trying out your luck on the Reader's Digest "Word Power" quiz every month, slapping a few words into a New York Times crossword or throwing out a few obscure words onto a Scrabble board or on Qwerty grid.  If you think you're good or even great, you have yet to meet the likes of Adam Jacot de Boined.  He's a man who has a passion for words like some people have for fine wine.  

The fine wine connoisseur can only dream of having a bottle of rare Chateau Lafite Rothschild, but at the click of a button the word connoisseur will be able to nab a copy of de Boined's vast collection of eccentric, expressive and electric words in his book,  THE MEANING OF TINGO and Other Extraordinary Words From Around The World.  The author combed the world's word resources amassing an astonishing array of the obscure in 254 languages.  In addition to an entire collection of more than sixty Intuit words for snow the reader can delight in a bit of humor.  For example, the reckless pedestrian could find himself viande á pneus or "meat for tyres."

I enjoyed the selection of wacky words from  many rich and varied languages, especially Yiddish and French,  and more than once caught myself laughing out loud.  It's a book that the reader should read in small sections or randomly browse, otherwise, as I soon found,  the chapters seemed to blend and the uniqueness of many words had a tendency to blend into one another.  The dedicated word aficionado and just plain, old curious readers will enjoy this one.