Hard Brexit, passporting rights, and October surprise: October’s words in the news

As if Brexit wasn’t bad enough, we now have something worse to look forward to: hard Brexit. Although we’re all probably sick of hearing about it, the results of last summer’s EU referendum will have repercussions for decades to come, and therefore will most likely continue to crop… Read More

Our lexicographers respond to the ‘Essex Girl’ debate

Collins applauds the campaign by The Mother Hub to change the stereotypical view of Essex women, which has raised some interesting points around how words are included in, or excluded from, dictionaries. Here at Collins, we believe our duty as a dictionary publisher is to report the… Read More

Etymology Corner – ‘bonfire’

Bonfire Coming as it does just after the clocks have been turned back, Bonfire Night brings a welcome distraction from the dark November evenings. Bonfires produce warmth, light, and good cheer at an otherwise dreary time of the year. So when the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson compiled his… Read More

‘Remoaners’, ‘womany’ and ‘squabblesome’: Lucy Mangan discusses this month’s new word coinages

Okay, folks – another blog, another brief round up of the one great bounty Brexit keeps furnishing forth; new coinages. Word coinages, I mean. Not, like, wood chips with Farage’s head on or whatever it is that ultimately replaces the pound when it finally falls so low we are all… Read More

Etymology Corner – ‘battery’ and ‘debate’

(de)bat(tery) The words ‘debate’ and ‘battery’ might seem to have little in common, although both have been in the news recently: production of a notable brand of smartphone has been stopped due to the risk of its battery catching fire, while the televised debates between the US presidential candidates have… Read More

‘Womance’, ‘fridgesurfing’, and ‘hamdog’ – Lucy Mangan’s back with your new word submissions

What is a womance, d’you think? A relationship between two Jonathan Ross impersonators? Between two fans of Womad? Two wombats? Alas, it is, according to its contributor Animan12 the most prosaic of portmanteaus and refers to a close but non-sexual relationship between two women. Modelled – presumably – on… Read More

Brangelina, Dampfnudel, and tsunami of abuse: September’s Words in the News

A recurring theme of this year’s “new words” blog posts has been old words cropping up again in a slightly new form or context, whether it’s the recent European Union Referendum recycling political jargon from the Scottish Independence Referendum, or a true blast from the past like Pokémon returning for… Read More

We take a look at the surprising origins behind the word ‘aftermath’

Aftermath Most words that begin with ‘after-’ are self-explanatory. We can all understand why we talk about an ‘aftertaste’, an ‘aftershock’, or an ‘aftereffect’, but why do we talk about the consequences of an event as its ‘aftermath’? It turns out that the ‘math’ in ‘aftermath’ has nothing to… Read More

Another day, another handful of terms to add to our ever-growing list of Brexit terminology

New contributor iancim brings us Wexit, which he defines as “the possible withdrawal of Wales and England from the European Union” but there seems – not for the first time around this topic – some dispute about this. It may be used to make some nationalistic point (Cambrian or,… Read More