The casual reader of the FEW (twenty-five volumes and still counting) might be forgiven for imagining that in a work of such magnitude and erudition, there could not and certainly should not still be any unresolved problems. If only life were so simple. In 1957, Wartburg suggested that possibly 20 per cent of his slips fell into the category of what was to become (in three volumes, FEW, 21-23) the 'material of unknown or uncertain origin' (Baldinger, 1973: 34). These three volumes have now given rise to Baldinger's three Etymologien, a concerted and massively scholarly attempt (to which many of the most distinguished specialists have contributed) to solve some at least of the conundra still at large in this endlessly fascinating 'etymological playground'. I would single out three particularly striking aspects of the volumes under review: first, the importance of argot, both in terms of individual words and groups of words which cause and/or have caused problems, and as an embodiment of general semantic trends; second, the absolute necessity of treating 'French' etymology in a pan-Romance context; third, the extent to which there still remain problems, and the way in which this shows (again, contrary to the tendency of even quite well-informed readers) that 'the dictionary' is not a once-and-for-all repository of The Truth, but a series of (one hopes) plausible interpretations of data, which will inevitably be added to and which will thus need re-evaluation. The role played by argot is exemplified by the discussion of gonze/gonzier/gonzesse (2,(17)(18)(19), or barbaque, amongst whose more plausible etymologies are Mexican Spanish barbacoa, or Romanian berbéce (1,422). Here, too, the importance of other languages is evident, as it is, for example, in the lengthy discussion of vernigal/Occitan barnigaou, breingal (1,224), or the derivation of d'altèque from Italian toga (del tògo/dal tògo reinterpreted by Vidocq, 2,46). For the third issue, cf. the case of aquiger/quiger, which despite repeated attempts to identify its source (the word is found at various points in FEW 21 and 23), defeats even Baldinger ('Etymologie [. . .] bleibt unbekannt', 1,364-5). In other words, in addition to providing immensely detailed discussions of individual words and problems (e.g. the comments on entulle < medieval Latin antula 'antelope' 2,6 supply information not found in any relevant dictionary), the studies provided here also raise any number of much more general