Language Lovers

Etymology Corner – ‘battery’ and ‘debate’

(de)bat(tery) The words ‘debate’ and ‘battery’ might seem to have little in common, although both have been in the news recently: production of a notable brand of smartphone has been stopped due to the risk of its battery catching fire, while the televised debates between the US presidential candidates have… Read More

‘Womance’, ‘fridgesurfing’, and ‘hamdog’ – Lucy Mangan’s back with your new word submissions

What is a womance, d’you think? A relationship between two Jonathan Ross impersonators? Between two fans of Womad? Two wombats? Alas, it is, according to its contributor Animan12 the most prosaic of portmanteaus and refers to a close but non-sexual relationship between two women. Modelled – presumably – on… Read More

Brangelina, Dampfnudel, and tsunami of abuse: September’s Words in the News

A recurring theme of this year’s “new words” blog posts has been old words cropping up again in a slightly new form or context, whether it’s the recent European Union Referendum recycling political jargon from the Scottish Independence Referendum, or a true blast from the past like Pokémon returning for… Read More

We take a look at the surprising origins behind the word ‘aftermath’

Aftermath Most words that begin with ‘after-’ are self-explanatory. We can all understand why we talk about an ‘aftertaste’, an ‘aftershock’, or an ‘aftereffect’, but why do we talk about the consequences of an event as its ‘aftermath’? It turns out that the ‘math’ in ‘aftermath’ has nothing to… Read More

Another day, another handful of terms to add to our ever-growing list of Brexit terminology

New contributor iancim brings us Wexit, which he defines as “the possible withdrawal of Wales and England from the European Union” but there seems – not for the first time around this topic – some dispute about this. It may be used to make some nationalistic point (Cambrian or,… Read More

A new month equals a new bunch of words. Lucy Mangan takes a look at your recent word submissions

Many of our contributors have written in to make sure that we have added traingate and ram-packed to our word warehouse, and we have – they’re in the sections marked by rolling-eye and tearstained emojis. We enjoy the irony of a pictogram-led categorisation system for our stores at… Read More

We take a look at the etymology behind the dreaded word ‘bill’

Bill The news that Apple is facing the world’s largest tax bill prompts an investigation into why we use the word ‘bill’ to refer to a statement of money owed. It turns out that the origins of ‘bill’ can be traced to the Latin word bulla, which means ‘a… Read More

Zombie knife, British invasion, and Traingate: August’s words in the news

There are some words and phrases that instantly make you go “Woah, what does that mean?” And zombie knife is one of them. So what is a zombie knife, why do you need one, and where can you get one? Well, zombie knives are (allegedly) decorative or novelty… Read More

From ‘trickini’ to ‘zoodles’, Lucy Mangan takes a look at your recent word submissions

There is just time, in the dog days of August, for the ‘trickini’ (submitted by tikitaka) to make an appearance. This is underwear that passes muster as a bikini, for those days when – um – I guess you can’t be bothered to put a bikini on instead of underwear… Read More