Michael Quinion has been a BBC radio producer, an audio-visual creator, museum curator, tourism consultant, lexicographer, etymologist, best-selling author, computer programmer, database designer and website developer, and sometimes feels a little tired. Not so much a career, more a series of accidental lurches from one occupation to another. Learn more about him and his books.
WORLD WIDE WORDS
Michael Quinion’s renowned site explores the English language from a British viewpoint. Visit it to read some 3,000 pieces on fascinating, amusing and downright weird words and phrases. He gave up writing it in 2017 but the site remains as an archive of 20 years of research and exploration.
DICTIONARY OF AFFIXES
This site is based on Michael Quinion’s book Ologies and Isms: Word Beginnings and Endings, published by Oxford University Press in 2002. It is out of print and has been put online as a free service. The entries cover 1,250 language elements with 10,000 examples; included are thematic indexes and a full-text search.
CIDERMAKING
Michael Quinion was the first curator of the Cider Museum in Hereford and developed the museum from idea to opening. His updated guide to traditional and modern English and Welsh orcharding and cidermaking craft skills of 1982 is available as a Shire Classic from Bloomsbury.
THORNBURY VOLUNTEER CENTRE
For 12 years, Michael Quinion volunteered at the Centre, principally creating and maintaining its website and databases but also preparing booklets and leaflets. He has now partially retired, concentrating on keeping the website up to date.
THORNBURY LOCAL HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY
For the better part of 80 years, the society has been doing pretty much what its title suggests: telling the local community about its heritage through lectures and excursions. Michael Quinion created and edits the Society’s website.