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Just finished Made in America by Bill Bryson and it was a very interesting read. It's a history of the English language in America but doesn't just focus on the language but all the events that the American version of English reflects. For example, he devotes a chapter to advertising in America and the various words that generated. Also movies, the space age, sports and so on.
Read it and you'll learn the word turnpike comes from a British term for the device they used for collecting tolls on roads. It was a stake standing vertical in the road with arms that could be turned to block the road. You paid the toll and the toll collector then turned the stake so the arms moved out of the way. And the word for the stake was pike; hence, turnpike.
Written in 1994 so it's a bit outdated but still quite interesting.
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