Wordy rambles (A walk through the world of words, in blog form)
Depending on your literary leanings, you might think that hapax legomenon sounds like one of the Unforgivable Curses from Harry Potter or Slartibartfast’s lesser-known brother who didn’t get to design any fjords. In reality, it’s a posh way of saying something quite simple. A hapax legomenon is a word (or phrase) that appears only once in a particular text, or even only once in the entire known…
When I came up with this idea, I thought it would probably be an easy answer. But once I started looking into it, it turned out that it’s not. And it involves Aristophanes. Sorry. The details The first thing to know is that the terms ‘full stop’ and ‘period’ didn’t always refer to exactly the same thing – or even to exactly the same kind of punctuation. ‘Period’ comes from the Greek word…
Have a look at the two bits of writing above. They have the same message – ‘Here’s something we’ve sent you and why.’ But only one of them makes you feel anything. The first is from a Tesco plastic bag. It’s functional, but flat. The second is from Starling Bank and came with my new card. It’s still functional, but it’s also warm, human and actually nice to read. Why am I telling you this? To show…
I was watching a detective-y murder-y mystery show the other day. One of the cops asked another one if he was inferring something or implying it. And that made me realise that I don’t know the difference and I’ve been using these two words interchangeably. Luckily the power of the internet means it’s easy to put this right. And the other bit of good news is that it’s not too hard to remember which…
If you’ve ever wondered why ‘though’ and ‘cough’ are spelled the same but pronounced completely differently, you’re not alone. Why does English spelling have so many quirks/really effing stupid things that are hard to remember? The answer lies in a dramatic event that happened a few hundred years ago: the Great Vowel Shift. Yes, that’s a thing. A vowel shift. Because English, at some point,…
Now, I’m a fully paid-up member of the (sadly, still only theoretical) grammar pedantry brigade. But even though it’s technically correct, you’ll never catch me saying ‘the data are compelling’ – even though ‘data’ is (sorry, are) plural, not singular, making this a flagrant case of verb-subject disagreement. So why do I do this? Because (a) I don’t have any data (compelling or otherwise), and (b)…
A very long time ago (2015, to be specific), I had a holiday in Iceland. And while I was there I learnt three things. Iceland: it’s flippin’ cold It’s very expensive. There are hardly any trees (there’s a joke in Iceland that goes ‘What should you do if you get lost in a forest in Iceland? Stand up’). When Icelanders want to add a new word to their language, for example, for a new technology, they…
There are lots of lovely foreign words which don’t have an English equivalent (I already wrote a post about this – my favourite is baggerspion, which is the desire to peek into a boarded-up building site). But it turns out that Japanese is particularly prolific when it comes to creating words to describe very specific feelings or activities. One of the better known ones is ‘suzushii men’, which is…
A (late, sorry) happy new year. I’m sure lots of us drunkenly sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to each other at some point on New Year’s Eve/Day – although I didn’t as I was on the sofa with a big old piece of cake. If you did, well done you. But did you understand what you were actually singing about? If not, read on. Auld Lang Syne (not ‘Auld Lang’s Eyne’ which is what I’ve always sung) is a Scottish…
Despite the fact that I’ve had more Christmases on this planet than I care to admit (at least 29), I’ve never really thought about why Boxing Day is called Boxing Day. Christmas Eve – makes sense. Christmas Day – obvious. Boxing Day – say what? I’ve done a bit of research, and it turns out there are a couple of theories as to where the box comes from. And I’m pleased to say that both are to do…
I spend a lot of my time editing enormo legal books packed with esoteric jargon (lucky me!) and some of the longest sentences known to man (or woman). A lot of those terms are Latin (for example, habeas corpus, prima facie, ex parte, pro bono, etc). But it turns out lots of our legal terms have also been infiltrated by another language. And that language is French. Specifically, Old French, which…
The names of the days of the week are a motley crew – they come from lots of different religions and mythologies. Here’s a whistlestop tour of where they got their names. Except for the ‘day’ bit, obviously. Sunday It’ll probably come as no surprise to you to learn that Sunday is named after the Sun. This comes from the Old English word ‘Sunndæg’ which means, you’ve guessed it, ‘Sun’s day’. Why…
You’re almost certainly familiar with the word ‘canine’ which describes things dogs are and do (kinda). And you’ve probably also come across ‘bovine’ for cows, ‘equine’ for horses and maybe even ‘leonine’ for lions. But did you know there are loads of other words ending in ‘ine’ which you can use to describe animal-like characteristics? Luckily I’ve done the research so you don’t have to, and can…
Phwoarr Possibly surprisingly for a blog about words, this post is actually about a person. And when I say person, I mean massive pedant. Let me introduce you to Alexander Cruden or, as he was more usually known, Alexander the Corrector. Yes, he was so pedantic about spelling and grammar, that he had a full-on nickname. I could only dream of such an honour. So why have I decided to devote a blog…
The word ‘OK’, or ‘okay’ which is my usual spelling, might feel fairly modern. And while it certainly isn’t as old as some, it’s no spring chicken either – it’s around 180 years old. It’s understood in most languages, and even has its own ( possibly racist ) hand gesture. But where did it come from? To find out, we’re going to travel back to 1839. Time for some LOLs You might think that txt-spk…
If you’re a regular reader (AKA my mum), then you might remember words of the week maverick , bowdlerise and dunce , all of which are eponyms, or named after people. Well, I thought I’d look into other words which you may or may not already know were named after people. So here are seven of the most interesting. Sadly, they’re all (with one notable exception) named for men, something which perhaps…
Nouns. There are bloody loads of them. Lots of them you know, and lots of them you don’t (probably). I’ve been trawling the interweb for those obscure naming words that you might not have come across before. You’re welcome. In no particular order… Apthong An apthong is the name for a silent letter, like the ‘k’ in ‘knight, ‘the ‘p’ in ‘pneumonia’ and the ‘w’ in ‘wrinkle’. Y’know, those pointless…
Nope, this isn’t a Tinder profile (if only the quality of available man was that good). It’s the start of a sentence containing some of the different ways you can say the letters ‘ough’. The full phrase is this: A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed. This is one of the many reasons I…
It’s that time of year again. Yay! I bloody love Christmas. But I never call it Xmas (unless it’s on a really small gift tag and I can’t fit the whole thing in) because of an innate wordy snobbery against modern, lazy abbreviations (IMO). I’m not the only one – ‘Xmas’ has long been vilified by writing style guides including the BBC, The Times and The Guardian . In fact, the latter says this:…
Words aren’t set in stone (well, except for the ten commandments, BOOM BOOM). Their meanings change over time, depending on how people use them. And there’s nothing wrong with that. So here are five everyday words which started out meaning one thing, but have now morphed into something completely different. 1. Silly Silly used to mean ‘pious’. It comes from an old English word, seely (which makes…