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"Tea" (a social word from the 17th century) is one of the words David Crystal examines in his book The Story of English In 100 Words.

"Tea" (a social word from the 17th century) is one of the words David Crystal examines in his book The Story of English In 100 Words.

This interview was originally broadcast on April 2, 2012.

Linguist David Crystal describes English as a "vacuum cleaner of a language." Speakers merrily swipe some words from other languages, adopt others because they're cool or sound classy, and simply make up other terms.

In his new book, he tells The Story of English in 100 Words, using a collection of words classic ones like "tea" and new words like "app" that explain how the the English language has evolved.

Crystal thinks every word has a story to tell, even the ones as commonplace as "and."

"Poor little words like 'and,' and 'the,' and 'of' ... they don't get any press at all," Crystal tells NPR's Neal Conan. "And this is a great shame, because without them, we have no syntax. We have no grammar. The whole language falls apart."

Crystal discusses the idiosyncrasies of the English language and some of his favorite words that made the list.

On the English language as a vacuum cleaner

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From 'App' To 'Tea': English Examined In '100 Words'