Used book – À mots découverts - Chroniques au fil de l'actualité, Alain Rey

"Dégringoler": Words abound, from collapse to tumble and plunge; but one of them is intriguing: "dégringolade." Very expressive, "dégringoler," with its "grin" and "gol" suggesting the descending steps of a steep staircase. It seems that the "gringol" in "dégringoler" is Germanic; in Old German and Dutch, "kringel" evokes the circle, the whirling, which would give "dégringolade" the appearance of a spinning fall."

For years, Alain Rey delighted France Inter mornings with his erudite and joyful column "Le Mot du jour" (Word of the Day). From "mouton" (sheep) to "utopie" (utopia), via "gendarme" (policeman), Alain Rey tells us the strange adventure of everyday words, with his ever-playful subtlety that is uniquely his.

Linguist, lexicographer, and inspiration for the Le Robert dictionary editorial team, Alain Rey published numerous works on language, including "Mille ans de langue française: histoire d’une passion" (A Thousand Years of the French Language: A History of a Passion) and "L’Amour du français: contre les puristes et autres censeurs du langage" (The Love of French: Against Purists and Other Language Censors).