{
  "id": "the-horologicon",
  "shelfNumber": "13",
  "title": "The Horologicon",
  "subtitle": "A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language",
  "authors": [
    "Mark Forsyth"
  ],
  "firstPublished": "2012",
  "firstPublicationNote": "First published in 2012. The original publisher record gives 2012-11-01.",
  "kind": "Popular nonfiction about unusual and historical vocabulary",
  "themes": [
    "language",
    "attention"
  ],
  "theme": "winter",
  "layout": "winter",
  "tagline": "An ordinary day, newly named.",
  "dek": "A day becomes a way of finding words. Forsyth moves from waking toward bedtime, gathering unusual vocabulary around familiar activities. Read it beside your own routines: the pleasure lies in discovering that a feeling or small habit you thought unnamed has a linguistic companion.",
  "art": {
    "src": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/the-horologicon.webp",
    "alt": "Invented amber and brass clockwork objects sit in changing bands of warm light across textured cream paper.",
    "width": 1536,
    "height": 1024,
    "caption": "Original AI-generated atmosphere for PointCast. Not a book cover, archival image or historical document."
  },
  "context": {
    "heading": "Let the hours become an index.",
    "paragraphs": [
      "A day becomes a way of finding words. Forsyth moves from waking toward bedtime, gathering unusual vocabulary around familiar activities. Read it beside your own routines: the pleasure lies in discovering that a feeling or small habit you thought unnamed has a linguistic companion.",
      "Published in 2012 after The Etymologicon, this book organizes lexical curiosities by the hours and activities of an imagined day. Forsyth's own account explains the arrangement through commuting, work, meals and bedtime. Its premise invites selective browsing as well as a continuous reading.",
      "Treat a pleasing word history as an invitation to investigate. Historical, regional and usage labels matter when comparing dictionary evidence."
    ],
    "sourceIds": [
      "source-2",
      "source-3",
      "source-1"
    ]
  },
  "authorNote": {
    "text": "Mark Forsyth arranges this vocabulary tour around waking, commuting, work, meals and bedtime. His own account of the structure makes an ordinary day a way into unfamiliar words.",
    "sourceIds": [
      "source-2",
      "source-3",
      "source-1"
    ]
  },
  "entryPoints": [
    {
      "id": "hours",
      "label": "Hours",
      "title": "Read at the corresponding moment.",
      "prompt": "Let a section accompany the part of your day it describes. What becomes easier to notice?"
    },
    {
      "id": "usage",
      "label": "Usage",
      "title": "Ask whose vocabulary it is.",
      "prompt": "For an unfamiliar word, look for dated examples, regional setting and usage labels. Unfamiliar to you need not mean unused everywhere."
    },
    {
      "id": "naming",
      "label": "Naming",
      "title": "Notice an unnamed routine.",
      "prompt": "Write about a small activity in your own language. Where does an unusual word clarify it, and where would it make conversation harder?"
    }
  ],
  "pathways": [
    {
      "label": "Read with the clock",
      "title": "Read with the clock",
      "text": "Let the imagined day accompany your own. What becomes noticeable when a familiar routine gains an unfamiliar word? Read a section near the corresponding part of your day. Choose a word that changes how you notice an activity. At bedtime, compare the book's sequence with your own."
    },
    {
      "label": "Investigate one word",
      "title": "Investigate one word",
      "text": "Follow one word into a dictionary record. What do dated examples, regional setting and usage labels add? Record the word and its context. Consult a relevant dictionary rather than guessing from appearance. Keep historical evidence separate from a proposed present-day use."
    },
    {
      "label": "Make an ordinary-day lexicon",
      "title": "Make an ordinary-day lexicon",
      "text": "What parts of your day feel precisely named, and which resist naming? Write a short account of a day in your own vocabulary. Notice activities or feelings for which you wanted a more precise word. Compare with a friend's list and discuss what a useful word must communicate."
    }
  ],
  "editions": [
    {
      "id": "horologicon-berkley-paperback-2013",
      "label": "Berkley U.S. paperback",
      "format": "Paperback",
      "publisher": "Berkley",
      "isbn": "9780425264379",
      "publicationDate": "2013-10-01",
      "pages": 304,
      "extras": "Additional introductions, notes or supplementary material have not been established for this edition. Textual differences from other editions have not been established.",
      "why": "A U.S. paperback to carry and read alongside the activities of your day.",
      "sourceId": "source-2",
      "links": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "Visit the U.S. publisher's purchase page",
          "url": "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313106/the-horologicon-by-mark-forsyth/",
          "note": "Exact selected paperback ISBN 9780425264379. Check the external provider’s regional and format terms."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Compare used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780425264379/n/100121502",
          "note": "Exact print ISBN search. Check seller condition, binding and delivery terms."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Find the title through your library",
          "url": "https://nlb.overdrive.com/media/1580608",
          "note": "NLB catalog record for separate Icon ebook ISBN 9781848314306; not the U.S. print ISBN. An eligible card and participating-library licence are required; availability and holds vary."
        }
      ],
      "translator": "Not applicable — English original"
    },
    {
      "id": "horologicon-icon-hardback-2012",
      "label": "Icon original hardback",
      "format": "Hardback",
      "publisher": "Icon Books",
      "isbn": "9781848314153",
      "publicationDate": "2012-11-01",
      "pages": 272,
      "extras": "Additional introductions, notes or supplementary material have not been established for this edition. Textual differences from other editions have not been established.",
      "why": "Choose the original hardback for keeping beside a desk and returning to during the day.",
      "sourceId": "source-1",
      "links": [
        {
          "kind": "new",
          "label": "Choose a retailer on the publisher's page",
          "url": "https://www.iconbooks.com/ib-title/the-horologicon/",
          "note": "Exact selected hardback ISBN 9781848314153. Check the external provider’s regional and format terms."
        },
        {
          "kind": "used",
          "label": "Compare used copies by ISBN",
          "url": "https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/9781848314153/n/100121502",
          "note": "Exact print ISBN search. Check seller condition, binding and delivery terms."
        },
        {
          "kind": "borrow",
          "label": "Find the title through your library",
          "url": "https://nlb.overdrive.com/media/1580608",
          "note": "Separate Icon ebook ISBN 9781848314306; not this hardback. An eligible card and participating-library licence are required; availability and holds vary."
        }
      ],
      "translator": "Not applicable — English original"
    }
  ],
  "digitalRoutes": [
    {
      "id": "resource-1",
      "label": "Forsyth explains the daily arrangement",
      "description": "Author's explanation of the structure and U.S. edition.",
      "url": "https://blog.inkyfool.com/2013/10/the-american-horologicon.html",
      "rights": "Read at the source. Public access does not grant republication rights; this is a companion resource, not the complete book.",
      "sourceId": "source-3",
      "type": "author-resource"
    },
    {
      "id": "resource-2",
      "label": "Dictionaries of the Scots Language",
      "description": "Free historical Scots dictionaries with source quotations; useful for investigating Scots vocabulary.",
      "url": "https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/what-is-dsl/",
      "rights": "Read at the source. Public access does not grant republication rights; this is a companion resource, not the complete book.",
      "sourceId": "source-6",
      "type": "dictionary-resource"
    },
    {
      "id": "resource-3",
      "label": "Merriam-Webster: reading etymologies",
      "description": "How dictionary entries mark language sources, reconstructed forms and unknown origins.",
      "url": "https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/explanatory-notes/dict-etymology",
      "rights": "Read at the source. Public access does not grant republication rights; this is a companion resource, not the complete book.",
      "sourceId": "route-9",
      "type": "dictionary-resource"
    }
  ],
  "rightsNote": "Modern copyrighted work. Purchase authorized copies or borrow through licensed libraries; no free full-text route was verified. No book text or cover is hosted here.",
  "readerNote": "Treat a pleasing word history as an invitation to investigate. Historical, regional and usage labels matter when comparing dictionary evidence.",
  "deeper": {
    "themes": [
      {
        "title": "A day as an index",
        "text": "What does arrangement by time and activity reveal that an alphabetical list would hide?"
      },
      {
        "title": "Naming the ordinary",
        "text": "Which overlooked routine became more interesting when you found a word for it?"
      },
      {
        "title": "Lost to whom?",
        "text": "How might a word unfamiliar to one reader belong to another community's living vocabulary?"
      }
    ],
    "questions": [
      "What would you want to know about a word's history before bringing it into conversation?",
      "When does an unusual word clarify an experience, and when might it hinder communication?",
      "Whose daily life would produce a very different vocabulary tour from your own?"
    ]
  },
  "series": null,
  "related": [
    {
      "title": "The Etymologicon",
      "url": "/books/the-etymologicon/",
      "why": "Follow another route through English, organised by connections rather than hours."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "source-1",
      "label": "Original publisher — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://www.iconbooks.com/ib-title/the-horologicon/",
      "type": "Original publisher",
      "note": "Exact subtitle and first publication date; Selected hardback ISBN, format, pages and retailer choices."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-2",
      "label": "U.S. publisher — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313106/the-horologicon-by-mark-forsyth/",
      "type": "U.S. publisher",
      "note": "Selected Berkley paperback ISBN, date, format and pages; Daily-vocabulary premise and purchase route."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-3",
      "label": "Author — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://blog.inkyfool.com/2013/10/the-american-horologicon.html",
      "type": "Author",
      "note": "Organization by hours and activities; U.S. publication context."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-4",
      "label": "Library licensed digital catalog — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://nlb.overdrive.com/media/1580608",
      "type": "Library licensed digital catalog",
      "note": "Separate Icon ebook ISBN, release date and formats."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-5",
      "label": "Library licensed digital catalog — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://nypl.overdrive.com/media/1676962",
      "type": "Library licensed digital catalog",
      "note": "Audiobook narrator, unabridged designation, ISBN and release metadata."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-6",
      "label": "Historical dictionary publisher — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/what-is-dsl/",
      "type": "Historical dictionary publisher",
      "note": "Historical Scots dictionary scope and free consultation."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-7",
      "label": "Bookseller marketplace — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/isbn/9780425264379/n/100121502",
      "type": "Bookseller marketplace",
      "note": "Exact U.S. paperback ISBN used search."
    },
    {
      "id": "source-8",
      "label": "Bookseller marketplace — The Horologicon",
      "url": "https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/9781848314153/n/100121502",
      "type": "Bookseller marketplace",
      "note": "Exact Icon hardback ISBN used search."
    },
    {
      "id": "route-9",
      "label": "Merriam-Webster: reading etymologies",
      "url": "https://www.merriam-webster.com/help/explanatory-notes/dict-etymology",
      "type": "Primary companion resource",
      "note": "How dictionary entries mark language sources, reconstructed forms and unknown origins."
    }
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-03",
  "copyHeading": "Find an edition. Follow a word.",
  "copyIntro": "Edition routes lead to outside sellers and libraries; online word-study resources below complement the book and do not provide its full text.",
  "canonical": "https://pointcast.xyz/books/the-horologicon/",
  "artworkProvenance": "/images/bookshelf-goodreads/provenance.json",
  "commerce": "External discovery links. Providers determine availability, prices, condition, and library eligibility. No PointCast stock, checkout, payment, or fulfilment.",
  "reproducedBookText": false,
  "quotationsUsed": 0,
  "artworkIsOfficialCover": false
}