Language Lovers

World Book Day: read up on the language of books

Thursday marks UK World Book Day. Fifteen million UK primary and secondary pupils will receive a £1 voucher to cash in for a book priced by publishers at a nominal £1. The aim is to encourage reading for pleasure. Reading for pleasure is, paradoxically, not pure and simple pleasure. Read More

9 words to decode Reddit’s GameStop trading lingo

The events surrounding trading in the shares of the American company GameStop have provided us with one of the more intriguing news stories of recent times. The story of a bunch of small investors threatening to bring some of the giants of the financial world to their knees by taking… Read More

9 words to sweep you into the world of Bridgerton

2021 is set to be the renaissance of Regency romance, as Netflix viewers indulge themselves in the delicious escapism of Bridgerton, a period romance with a modern twist. The salacious gossip of the anonymous Lady Whistledown, who has stepped gracefully into the role of a Georgian Gossip Girl, has kept… Read More

TikTok’s Sea Shanties: Explore their vocabulary

Well, blow me down. Improbable as it may seem, there’s no denying that sea shanties are having a very real moment in the spotlight. Near the end of 2020, a video from a young Scottish singer started to do the rounds on the social media platform… Read More

Ten US political terms to baffle Brits

(Updated from 7 US political terms to baffle the Brits, published on 7th November 2020) The United States will inaugurate a new president on January 20th when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the forty-sixth person to hold the office. While observers in Europe… Read More

Word exploration: vaccines, vaccinations and jabs

In what the PM has described as a ‘final sprint’, the new year got off to a flying start with a COVID-19 vaccination rollout underway across the UK. In early January, Her Majesty The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh were vaccinated. The Palace decided… Read More

New hope for the New Year

New Year’s Eve is traditionally when we fix our gaze firmly forward in hope, having cast a backward glance at the year just ended. Which, despite the negatives, saw a healthy increase in good-neighbourliness and kindness as demonstrated, for instance, by caremongering. I feel hopeful that… Read More

Food for thought this Christmas

I don’t know about you, but I’m already salivating at the prospect of Christmas food. The first pangs start early in December with the nostalgia rush I get upon spotting dinky net bags of mixed nuts for sale. Perhaps folk are deterred by the faff of cracking them open to… Read More

Eight Gaelic words from the Collins English Dictionary

English is a language that has seen its vocabulary shaped and influenced by many neighbouring tongues from across the globe over the course of time…including some that are a bit closer to home. There are several native Celtic languages spoken in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man that have… Read More