"Ancarrow combines extreme precision with a wild imagination. In a 'Note' at the end of the book, he writes: 'The etymologies in this book are correct, though not necessarily complete, sometimes poetically so.' And therein lies the magic of Etymologies. The author seems to have made nothing up, to have been, it would appear, coolly objective throughout the writing of each study of a word's origin. And yet, despite this claim, which I do not doubt, feelings and fancifulness emerge-like a swarm of genies freed from many bottles-at once impish, amatory, mysterious, provocative, funny, delightful, and dazzling."–John Yau, Judge for the 2021 Omnidawn Open, and author of Genghis Chan on Drums