Why do good things cut the mustard? Who or what was the real Real McCoy? And why do we call false sentiment crocodile tears? Can crocodiles really cry? In What Made the Crocodile Cry? , Susie Dent draws on her popular television segment on the curiosities of English to tackle these and many other fascinating puzzles. Writing with her customary charm and erudition, Dent offers a wonderfully readable and endlessly entertaining exploration of language, answering 101 of the most intriguing questions about the English language, from word origins and spelling to grammar and usage. Dent ranges far and wide in her search for the oddities of language, pondering the ancient origin of the word "tragedy" (which originally meant "goat song" in Greek) as well as the modern meaning of the word "donk" in the Blackout Crew's song title "Put a Donk in It." And throughout, the book brims with fascinating tales. Readers learn, for instance, that the word "bankrupt" comes from the Italian "banca rotta" or