The Highland Games: Why Do We Toss the Caber and Where Do Bagpipes Really Come From?

It is thought that the Highland Games originated from ancient Scottish clans competing against each other in various sporting events, with chiefs selecting their strongest, fastest, fittest and most entertaining men to represent the clan. Similar sporting contests were also staged at military meets, where… Read More

From offendicles to plorker: Lucy Mangan takes on your new word submissions

I’ve just been on holiday to north Norfolk and paid a visit to the shrine in Walsingham with my friend, a fellow lapsed Catholic, to buy (it’s free if you take your own bottle, but we’re so lapsed we forgot) for still-practising members of our families what she refers to… Read More

Ice Bucket Challenge and Supermoon – Trending words in August

Let’s be honest. Last month’s top buzzword has been Ice Bucket Challenge. And I don’t have to define it for you, because we’ve all seen more videos of celebs and four-year-olds alike pouring cold water over their heads than we saw of duckface selfies last year. The Ice… Read More

11 British Summer Fête Essentials: Three-Legged Races, Tombolas and Cream Tea

When we try to picture a ‘great British summer’, what comes to mind: coloured beach huts, 99 ice cream cones, and sunny garden parties, or crowds of optimistic families sitting underneath umbrellas on their deck chairs? Although we may sometimes get caught out, living in a country with such… Read More

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