Language Lovers

‘Austerity’, ‘Portillo moment’, and ‘1%er’: May’s Words in the News

I expected to have to open this month’s post with confidence and supply (an arrangement in a hung parliament in which the second largest party agrees to support the minority government in budget and confidence votes only). Confidence and supply is the main alternative to a coalition government. It keeps… Read More

‘Pandafication’, ‘Jockalypse’, and a word with no meaning are among the new word suggestions dissected by Lucy Mangan

Thank you first of all to moneill, for “whaling” – a form of phishing (nefarious emailing to try and extract sensitive data from unsuspecting recipients) that targets company executives instead of average Joes with their only averagely valuable information. Phishing for bigger fish = whaling! PLEASING! “Flakka”, submitted… Read More

Language be the Food of Love

New scrabblicious words that can really give your game some bite… AFFOGATO (Italian) a dessert made by pouring espresso coffee over ice cream ROASTIES roast potatoes GUMMI a rubbery, flavoured candy… Read More

The Lost World of Floriography

In honour of the world’s most prestigious Chelsea Flower Show coming up next week, Hazel Gaynor, author of A Memory of Violets, talks us through the language of flowers. While researching my novel A Memory of Violets I discovered the wonderful world of ‘floriography’. In the Victorian… Read More

Any ‘quamments’? Lucy Mangan questions and comments on your new word submissions

Quuuuiiiick – let’s get these last few election terms out before…well, before the new election term begins. “Milifan” and “Milifandom” (submitted by moneill) came to prominence just after my last blogpost, which rounded up previous GE2015-specific words, and refers to the – primarily young – coterie of Ed Miliband supporters… Read More

Etymology Corner – Election ‘Candidates’

With a general election occurring in Britain on May 7, there is no shortage of candidates seeking votes. The history of the word ‘candidate’ goes back to ancient Rome, where people who stood for political office would wear specially whitened togas while campaigning. These men came to be… Read More

‘Kitchen-sinking’, ‘Milifan’, and ‘Death Star’: April’s Words in the News

April is the cruellest month, at least when it’s the month before a General Election. I suppose political vocabulary is unavoidable in this month’s post. A recent television discussion programme asked if this election campaign has been relatively “sterile”, and indeed the search terms have been pretty boring. Read More

Will in the Words

In honour of Shakespeare Day, Christopher Moore, author of The Serpent of Venice, reminds us of Shakespeare’s gift to the English language. We all know the poet and playwright, but Shakespeare the wordsmith also coined more than 1700 original words in the English Language. Proper words, too,… Read More

‘Ecofiscal’, ‘Scotiaphobia’ and ‘Disguss’ – Lucy Mangan casts her vote for your election words

Aha! I see that it has not gone unnoticed amongst our ever-observant readers and contributors that there is a little something I like to call a general election afoot, and you have been submitting your terms according. Beardyfox has provided us – perhaps optimistically, perhaps a little plaintively?… Read More