Language Lovers

Mograbia, scanxiety and Katy Cat: Lucy Mangan takes on your new word submissions

I am always grateful for the chance to add another brick of knowledge to the wall guarding me against inadvertently ordering something disgusting in a restaurant and so I must thank moneill for supplying me with “mograbia”, which apparently is the proper name for giant couscous. Mmm, giant… Read More

Word-lover interview: Susan Purcell of The Virtual Linguist

Meet Susan Purcell, the latest in our series of word lover interviews. Susan writes at The Virtual Linguist, and speaks and writes French, German and Russian as well as English. What is your favourite language?Out of those I have studied as a foreign language, Russian. Read More

Selfies: Have we reached peak Selfie and is the word here to stay?

The selfie: we and celebrities take them alone, in groups and with significant others, with pets, livestock, babies, monkeys and octopi taking to the trend. Selfies have even arrived from outer space! Selfies have taken over our social media world – so much so that there’s… Read More

Word-lover interview: Nic Subtirelu of Linguistic Pulse

Word-lovers abound in the Collins Dictionary community, and so we’re running an interview series with some of the ones we’re lucky enough to count as friends of the blog. We’re delighted to speak to Nic Subtirelu, who runs Linguistic Pulse and is interested in the areas of… Read More

The Monogram Murders: How to Speak Like Hercule Poirot

To celebrate the release of The Monogram Murders, the brand new Hercule Poirot novel from best-selling crime fiction novelist Sophie Hannah, we’re putting a spotlight on Christie’s most beloved character – specifically on his accent, which is so renowned that it has even become an event: Talk Like… Read More

Do you have any known unknowns when it comes to words? Lucy Mangan takes on your new word submissions

There are, as the much-maligned Donald Rumsfeld said, known knowns. And there are known unknowns. And then there are the unknown unknowns. But when it comes to words rather than risk assessments of international warfare there are also the categories “sort of knew I didn’t know” and “sort of didn’t… Read More

Word-lover interview: Andrew Taylor, crime and historical novelist

We’re very pleased to introduce our first fiction author to the word-lover interview series; Andrew has published over 20 books in the crime and historical genre. His new book, The Silent Boy, is published on the 28th of August. You can read more about Andrew’s work at… Read More

Bedroom tax, reshuffle, and digital make-up – Trending Words in July 2014

The weather isn’t the only thing that’s been heating up this summer. July saw some interesting developments in the world of politics. One term that’s popping up a lot is the so-called “bedroom tax”. This is not an official name. In fact, there is no official name, because… Read More

Word-lover interview: Yousuf AlBader

Word-lovers abound in the Collins Dictionary community, and so we’re running an interview series with some of the ones we’re lucky enough to count as friends of the blog. Following our interviews with Lynne Murphy of Separated By A Common Language, Tim Gorichanaz from ScratchTap and… Read More