bEnglish has fast become the number one language for everything from business and science, diplomacy and education, entertainment and environmentalism to socializing and beyond--virtually any human activity unfolding on a global scale.b Worldwide, nonnative speakers of English now outnumber natives three to one and in China alone, more people use English than in the United States--a remarkable feat for a language that got its start as a mongrel tongue on an island fifteen hundred years ago. pThrough the fascinating stories of thirty English words used and understood in nearly all corners of the globe, iThe English Is Coming! itakes readers on an eye-opening journey across culture and commerce, war and peace, and time and space. These mini-histories shed new light on everyday words the strange turns of fate by which their meanings evolved and their new roles as the building blocks of the first language ever to forge a global community. pExploring such familiar terms as ishampoo ifrom a