Language Lovers

Fairies & folklore: some of literature’s most famous forests

Forests have captured our imaginations for as long as they’ve been standing. In Collins Dictionary, a forest is defined as a large area where trees grow close together. It first entered the English language in the 13th century from Old French, and finds its roots in… Read More

British Science Week 2022: Talking about Growth!

British Science Week is upon us and we’re ready for ten whole days of STEM – science, technology, engineering and maths! According to the official website, British Science Week is a platform to stimulate and support teachers, professionals and the public to get involved in STEM,… Read More

FASHION! 6 subcultures & trends to watch out for in 2022

Fashionistas have been out in force as Fashion Week took place in Paris, New York, and London over the last few weeks. Long sleeves, cocktail rings, bright colours, and bucket hats are all on display as the hot trends for 2022, plus new trends inspired by fashion subcultures. To celebrate… Read More

World Hearing Day

Thursday 3 March is World Hearing Day. This is an annual event organised by the WHO (World Health Organization) to promote awareness of hearing loss and advocate for measures to avoid it. This year’s slogan is ‘To hear for life,… Read More

Pearls before Swine

Recently the consumer research company Perspectus Global commissioned a survey about English phrases. They asked 2,000 people aged 18 to 50 whether they used any of a list of fifty expressions. The list was ranked with the least used phrases at the top. Thus, 78 per cent of respondents said… Read More

Six Nations Championship: the lexicon of rugby

The British have invented so many sports (how many can you think of? I make it fifteen1) and exported them to the four corners of the globe. Sometimes, sadly for some, cosmic irony dictates that the adopter is superior to the exporter, as in the recent case of… Read More

Food & festivities: the language of Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival, is upon us and those celebrating will spend the next two weeks welcoming the Year of the Tiger. To mark the occasion, we decided to take a closer look at some of the vocabulary relating to… Read More

11 unusual 5-letter words to kick off your next Wordle game

If you’ve spent any time on social media over the last few weeks, you’ve probably noticed your feeds being slowly taken over by black, yellow and green squares. Wordle is the name of the game, and this simple daily word game has got everybody playing with language. Given words are… Read More

National Puzzle Day

National Puzzle Day falls on 29 January. And what’s not to love about puzzles? They enhance alertness and focus, can provide social interaction, and once successfully completed bestow a warming sense of achievement. A recent book was even subtitled Life Lessons from Jigsaw Puzzles. But where the word… Read More