The author and logophile Howard Richler discusses his new book on words, How Happy Became Homosexual: And Other Mysterious Semantic Shifts (Ronsdale Press, 2013), with Joseph Planta.

How Happy Became Homosexual: And Other Mysterious Semantic Shifts by Howard Richler (Ronsdale Press, 2013). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: How Happy Became Homosexual

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Howard Richler joins me again. He’s got a new book out, that’s just a terrific read. The book is called How Happy Became Homosexual: And Other Mysterious Semantic Shifts. It’s such a fascinating book, that you’ll be going back to it frequently. In his inimitable style, Howard Richler educates and enlightens us with the history of a number of words, gives us their etymology and how their usage has changed its meaning over the centuries. It’s rather neat to see how some words have completely different meanings than their intent. Mr. Richler writes columns on language for various newspapers, and he’s published six previous books, including the one he was on with three years ago, Strange Bedfellows: The Private Lives of Words. The book is published by Ronsdale Press. Follow Howard on Twitter. His handle is @howardrichler, and he regularly has a great fact or a word puzzle. His blog, Word Nerd is at howarderichler.blogspot.ca/. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, in Montreal, Howard Richler; Mr. Richler, good morning.

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