Toujours Tingo: More Extraordinary Words to Change the Way We See the World (Penguin, £10.99) is a book that will make a more cultured you in a pisan zapra (time it takes to eat a banana).

This may sound like drivel from a poyipoyi (a person who talks at length but does not make sense) but is in fact an example of the bizarre language that can be found inside.

Toujours Tingo is a new and unusual title from Writers’ News member Adam Jacot de Boinod that lists and explains strange and seemingly pointless words from around the world as well as providing information and discussion.

This is a sequel to Adam’s first book The Meaning of Tingo, which had the same theme. Having studied Latin since the age of seven and Greek since the age of eleven, he had a lot of linguistic knowledge at his disposal. He has also worked as a researcher for QI, where Stephen Fry expressed his enjoyment of the title as ‘A book no well-stocked bookshelf, cistern-top or handbag should be without.’

Toujours Tingo is being published by Penguin and work on the third in the series will commence in January, which should make linguophiles elmosolyodic (want to smile).