This list combines those resources I’ve found most useful in writing this book with those I’d recommend for further etymological exploration.
It’s a deliberately selective and idiosyncratic collection. For a more complete list of sources and citations, see the notes in the next section.
Aitchison, Jean, Language Change: Progress or Decay? (Cambridge UP, 2000).
Baron, Naomi, Always On: Language in an Online and Cell World (OUP USA, 2010).
Crystal, David, The Stories of English (Penguin, 2005).
Crystal, David, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 (Oxford UP, 2009).
Crystal, David, Language and the Internet (Cambridge UP, 2006).
Deutscher, Guy, Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages (Arrow, 2011).
Forsyth, Mark, The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language (Icon, 2011).
Pinker, Steven, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (Penguin, 2008).
The Eggcorn Database—eggcorns.lascribe.net
English Language & Usage at Stack Exchange—english.stackexchange.com
Google Books—books.google.com
Google Ngram Viewer—books.google.com/ngrams
The Inky Fool—blog.inkyfool.com
Internet Gaming Slang glossary—www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/tony/onlineslang.htm
Know Your Meme—knowyourmeme.com
Language Hat—www.languagehat.com
Language Log—languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll
Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary—www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/index.php
The New Hacker’s Dictionary (the Jargon File)—www.outpost9.com/reference/jargon/jargon_toc.html
The OED’s Oxford Words blog—blog.oxforddictionaries.com
The Online Etymological Dictionary—www.etmonline.com
Schott’s Vocab (no longer updated)—schott.blogs.nytimes.com
Shady Characters, the secret life of punctuation—www.shadycharacters.co.uk
Snopes—www.snopes.com
The Urban Dictionary—www.urbandictionary.com
The Virtual Linguist—virtuallinguist.typepad.com/the_virtual_linguist
The Visual Thesarus—www.visualthesaurus.com
Wikipedia (natch)—en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Word Spy—www.wordspy.com