'Lost' in translation
Nathan Bierma, Minds editor
"On Language"
Chicago Tribune
September 14, 2005

Five years after her book on the history of walking, Wanderlust, author Rebecca Solnit has a new volume of essays that explore the theme of getting lost and, more broadly, abandoning certainty: A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Viking, 224 pages, $21.95).

Most reviews rave that Solnit, a former recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism (for her book "River of Shadows") and the Lannan Literary Award, has delivered another elegant work. But some of them—including the New Yorker and a Village Voice review linked from the popular website Arts & Letters Daily (www.aldaily.com) —also praise the way Solnit incorporates what she says is the etymology of the word "lost."

"The word `lost,'" Solnit says, "comes from the Old Norse `los,' meaning the disbanding of an army, and this origin suggests soldiers falling out of formation to go home, a truce with the wide world. I worry now that many people never disband their armies, never go beyond what they know."

But ask an etymologist and you'll find that Solnit's literature is better than her linguistics. Like many enticing etymological explanations, this alleged Old Norse origin may make for a good story, but it isn't necessarily true.

READ THE FULL TEXT »