by Andrew Pelechaty
A regular on ABC Queensland with his A word in your ear radio show/podcast, Roly Sussex has earned his title of the Lord of Language; there’s little about language and linguistics that he doesn’t know. 
His book Word for today is a collection of interesting words from the show’s ‘Word for today’ promo pieces (he’s written and recorded nearly 700 of them) and is sorted into three sections: Etymology and origins, Neologisms and Misuse and disagreements.
This book is perfect for bite-size reading, with each word-entry one to two pages long. As well as clearly explaining each word’s origins, and making the more complex ones relatable, Roly ends each entry with a dry witticism about the word; regular listeners of A word in your ear would be familiar with Roly’s humour (especially his closing joke of the week), so it’s nice to see this translated to print: it’s even better if you can close your eyes and read it in his voice. The light-hearted approach continues with a handful of simple cartoons by John Eyley that help get each word’s point across.
As well as being an entertaining read, Word for today is a handy reference book that can be dipped into if you want to show off your wordplay skills to your friends or settle any bar arguments.
With the English language constantly evolving, the Neologisms section tackles modern terms from the internet/social media age, like trending, wi-fi, troll, ghosting, TL;DR, friend zone and gamification, and horrible business-speak like reach out. Sussex also demystifies commonly misused words in the Misuse and disagreements chapter, like apartment/flat, loan/lend, jealous/envious, sewage/sewerage, demur/demure, exasperate/exacerbate and assume/presume.
At just over 200 pages long, Word for today can be read in a handful of sessions or be dipped into during spare moments.
Andrew Pelechaty is the Web Content Editor for Nothing But League, and a beta reader.