Language Lovers

Are you ‘kwl’ or ‘cool’? Lucy Mangan looks at your word submissions from the last fortnight

News reaches me – via contributor kaiwaiipanda – that if you are under a certain age, you do not write “cool” in your texts. It is apparently only cool to write “kwl”. I m old, fthr tm. It is possible that they have sound reasons for this otherwise inexcusable… Read More

‘Drynuary’ is nearly over, so what’s next on the word list? Here’s Lucy Mangan with your update…

How are you? Have you survived Dry January? Or ‘Drynuary’, as submitted by Tommy, which if we’d thought of it earlier could have saved us all vital nanoseconds over the last four weeks. When you consider how boring all conversations about dry January are, a nanosecond saved on such discussion… Read More

New Year Etymology Corner – we take a look at the word of the moment, ‘resolution’

‘Resolution’ is one of a group of nouns that come from the Latin word solūtus (meaning ‘made loose’) and are all related to verbs ending in ‘-solve’ (from the Latin solvō, meaning ‘I release’). Other members of this group are ‘dissolution/dissolve’ and ‘absolution/absolve’. They all suggest some sort of release… Read More

Gloving, Basic Income, and Lemmium: December’s Words in the News

As we settle back into our routines with fresh faces and Christmas behind us, we’re bringing some great neologisms into 2016 that December gifted to our linguistic stockings. The adjective nonbinary isn’t exactly new, even when referring to gender (where it indicates a person who identifies as neither female nor… Read More

Lucy Mangan looks at your first word submissions of 2016

Happy New Year to you all! I trust you all had a lovely break and are now enjoying unparalleled success with your chosen resolutions. I am not. But in a crazy twist no one saw coming, I have conceived another one which renders any guilt or fretting about this impossible. Read More

Christmas etymology corner – ‘Eggnog’, ‘Hot Toddy’ and the trusty ‘Regmaker’

It is the party season, and you might be intrigued to know what is behind the names of some of the drinks you could be offered this Christmas. One drink that is especially associated with the festive season is eggnog, whose name comes from nog, an old dialect word for… Read More

‘Black Friday’, ‘Moon Hitler’ and ‘Cyber Monday’: the Christmas madness begins with November’s words in the news

You know, it seems like the Christmas season starts earlier every year. But I’m not talking about seeing Christmas decorations in a shop in late August (which, by the way, actually happened). I’m referring to the fact that people couldn’t wait until 27 November to start talking about Black Friday. Read More

Lucy Mangan’s ‘awesomesauce’ take on your new word submissions

A bumper crop of delights this week, thank you, and from a wealth of new contributors as well as doughty old timers! Thank you, everyone – it feels like Christmas has come early. Welcome to Willow, first of all, a newcomer who gives us “awesomesauce”, which I love almost as… Read More

The Power of Love: 10 Romantic Words for #BFILoveFest

In honour of the #BFILoveFest this weekend – a UK-wide celebration of LOVE in TV and film – this week we take a look at the etymology of 10 commonly used romantic words. Drawing on #BFILoveFest’s themes of The Power of Love, Fools for Love and Fatal Attractions, we… Read More