Perhaps, in this case, unfamiliarity was a factor?

Just by happenstance, I picked up Deutscher's book at the library last week; I'd not heard of it, but it looked intriguing. I wish I had made the connection to the chat.

As to the book itself, a quick browse this morning leaves me with the impression that it would be of interest to most of those who read these forums. In addition to the flos/flor-is discussion that came up in the chat, I noted a section that described the origin of the words grotty/grot that confirmed my suspicions (cf. George Harrison and Reginald I. Perrin); and also an extended dialogue between a Dr. de Troy (author of Bakunian Linguistics: Toward a Dialectic of Categorical Deconstuction), and a member of the RSPEL(!) (the Royal Society for the Protection of the English Language) who has only just presented a loving obituary for the pronoun 'whom' and can hold back no longer.