Language Lovers

Antarctica Day

This Thursday, 1 December, marks the annual Antarctica Day. If you’re wondering why such a day exists, its raison d’être is to celebrate the signing in 1959 of the Antarctic Treaty by the twelve countries then actively exploring the continent. The treaty recognised that this, the… Read More

Your essential guide to World Cup vocabulary

The weather outside is frightful, but for football fans the most delightful time of the year is upon us – admittedly a few months later than usual – as the 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar this November. First played in 1930, the World Cup is an international association… Read More

Pop Goes the Weasel: the magical language of nursery rhymes

When we are ickle, words can cast magic spells. Think Rain, rain, go away.Come again another day. And when we are small, each new word unlocks a new world of experience. “What’s a weasel, Dad?” When we are tiny, nursery rhymes do both. *** And they… Read More

Soggy bottoms & baps: the proven glossary of The Great British Bake Off

With over 4 million viewers weekly, The Great British Bake Off (GBBO) is a great British institution, famous for baked Alaska controversies and the Paul Hollywood handshake. It also has its fair share of risqué innuendos, giving us a delightful range of soggy bottoms, baps and spotted dicks to keep… Read More

7 Extreme Weather Idioms

Around the world people experience many examples of extreme weather, such as tornadoes, blizzards, thunderstorms and heatwaves. These phenomena can be unexpected and unpredictable, so here are seven extreme weather idioms to help you weather even the wildest storm!  1.  Storm in a teacup There… Read More

A year of ‘permacrisis’

The 2020s have certainly seen their fair share of upheaval – and we’re only two years in! Already this decade we’ve had to contend with a pandemic and its aftermath, a brutal new war in Europe, and in the UK an economic crisis that saw the Bank of England warning… Read More

8 wonderful words to mark Dictionary Day

As Rudyard Kipling once said, “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” At Collins Dictionary, we pride ourselves on being the home of living language, and that means when an opportunity comes to celebrate it, we can’t resist joining in. This week we’re celebrating Dictionary Day,… Read More

The return to Westeros: the essential House of the Dragon glossary

The dragons have landed. HBO’s much-hyped Game of Thrones prequel launched in August, and we are ready for things to get lit. It’s been a while since we last spent time in the wild world of Westeros and given that we’ve travelled back 200 years before the lifetime of Daenerys… Read More

Autumn traditions and their lexicon

For convenience, the weather people kickstart autumn by inaugurating it on 1 September. But the first astronomical day of autumn fell this year on 23 September, the date of the autumn equinox. Either way, autumn is now well and truly here, as… Read More