Etymology Corner – ‘Festival’

Book-lovers are emerging from their paper cocoons in their book-and-mortar houses, in order to attend the Cheltenham Literature Festival and feed their desire for exciting, new reads. Here at Etymology Corner, we’re feeding your love of words. By no coincidence, this month we explore the origin of ‘festival’. Read More

‘Farquhar’, ‘Sangry’ and ‘Thighbrows’: Lucy Mangan avoids the pig-shaped elephant in the room with your new word submissions

I am resisting the temptation to fill this blog with the pig puns and other pieces of porcine wordplay that have been filling the internet since #piggate occurred. Or #Hameron happened. I shall not ask whether any PM has ever been rasher, or if he should get the chop and… Read More

It’s Written in the Stars: Explore the Universe in 20 Words

Stargazers everywhere looked to the skies during the early hours of Monday 28th September to catch the Total Lunar Eclipse, as the moon passed completely through the Earth’s dark shadow and became a blood red colour. To celebrate this beautiful phenomenon, and the publication of his 2016… Read More

‘Biophobia’: a fear of studying life… Lucy Mangan gets Gothic with your new word submissions

“Come round for dribbles!” The mind doesn’t so much boggle as run immediately for shelter and stay there cowering until it can be sure all danger has passed. Nothing good can come of such a phrase, and this is particularly true when you become aware – as I am now,… Read More

Etymology Corner – ‘Blitz’

‘Blitz’ comes from the German word for lightning. Its arrival in the English language can be traced to the German military strategy of Blitzkrieg (literally ‘lightning war’), which used tanks and bombers to secure rapid victories at the start of World War II. When a similar strategy was used in… Read More

‘Dismaland’, ‘ring of steel’ and ‘pansexual’: August’s Words in the News

The Summer holidays are over and schools are back in session. For any parents who took their kids to abroad to Paris, Orlando, or California during the past couple months, the Disneyland parks may already seem terrifying beyond belief. The credit card bill certainly will be. But, the elusive artist… Read More

‘Crushed it.’ Lucy Mangan does a great job with your new word submissions

Thank you, moneill, for submitting “crush it” – meaning “do exceptionally well” – as it gives me an excuse to quote one of my favourite moments from the second season of my favourite sitcom of recent years, Silicon Valley (Mike Judge’s latest and A Joy Forever). Richard and Jared, founder… Read More

How ‘grammable’ is your ‘hoglet’? Lucy Mangan casts judgment on your new word submissions

I am apparently not allowed to share with you all the new swearwords that spring forth unbidden but fully formed when your tyre blows on a country road on the penultimate day of your holiday and takes half your nearside wing with it, but can I just say they were… Read More

‘Corbynmania’, ‘gig economy’ and ‘Operation Stack’: July’s Words in the News

As a closet prog rock fan, I’m well acquainted with the Peter Gabriel era Genesis song which describes an invasion of Britain by a triffid-esque poisonous plant called the giant hogweed. So it came as a surreal shock when I read that this plant was not only real but had… Read More