Language Lovers

“Mic drop”, “bigly”, and “unbound delegate”: May’s Words in the News

Mic drop, the act of dropping one’s microphone (literally or figuratively) as a dramatic gesture at the end of a speech, rap, or other vocal performance, gained a friend in high places in May when US President Barack Obama did it at the end of his speech to the final… Read More

The RHS Chelsea Flower show is in full swing so we take a look at the etymology behind the word ‘horticulture’

Horticulture The week of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show seems like a suitable time to look into the origin of the word ‘horticulture’. This is formed out of two Latin words: hortus means ‘a garden’, and cultura means ‘cultivation’ or ‘tilling’. So horticulture is simply ‘the cultivation of… Read More

Lucy Mangan checks out our recent word submissions, from ‘maternity moon’ to ‘ackle’.

After last week’s “peternity/pawternity leave” (the time off granted by some super-civilised companies to people who need to settle a recently-acquired pet or care for a sick one) comes “meternity leave” and “maternity moon.” The former was coined by author (of a book entitled – ta-da! – Meternity) Meghann Foye… Read More

We take a look at the etymology behind the word ‘poll’

People across Britain recently went to the polls in local elections, which raises the question, why do we talk about ‘polls’ and ‘polling stations’ in the context of voting. The word ‘poll’ is of Germanic origin, and first occurs in English in the 13th century, when it meant ‘a head’. Read More

#FreeTheP, Beyhive, and “back of the queue”: April’s Words in the News

One of the most unlikely success stories in television history has got to be the meteoric rise of Game of Thrones, which returned to television screens for its sixths (and, allegedly, final) series in late April. Who could have predicted that a House of Cards-cum-Borgias-esque saga of political backstabbing set… Read More

From ‘nanwar’ to ‘gastrique’ Lucy Mangan takes a look at some of your hilarious word submissions

Well, this week’s submissions have been a series of shocks and misdirections and no mistake, yer little monkeys! First was “nanwar” which was submitted, unusually, by the good people manning BBCStore’s Twitter account. For a few terrible moments I thought it was an announcement for a new show. “Nanwars!… Read More

As it’s Queen Elizabeth’s birthday we take a look at the etymology behind the word nonagenarian

Nonagenarian Queen Elizabeth has just entered the ranks of the nonagenarians – people aged between ninety and ninety-nine. ‘Nonagenarian’ is one of a set of words that are used to describe people in a particular decade of life: you can also be a quadragenarian (forties), quinquagenarian (fifties), sexagenarian (sixties),… Read More

Dog chipping, living wage, and superdelegate: We take a look back at March’s Words in the News

The best thing I can say about dog chipping is that It’s not what I initially thought it was. It refers to the process of planting a sterile microchip containing identifying details under your pet dog’s skin: a digital-age improvement over the traditional metal collar tag. Also called microchipping, the… Read More

Lucy Mangan on the your latest word submissions

Well, goodness me, what have we here? First, from new contributor patrick_gooch comes “amalgamerge”, a kind of tautologous portmanteau (tautomanteau? LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN, PEOPLE) apparently meaning “to amalgamate slowly and stealthily”, though I’m not quite sure where the slowness – etymologically speaking – comes from. And then,… Read More