Happy Mother’s Day… or Mothering Sunday?

Mother’s Day and Mothering Sunday are commonly thought of as being the same thing. How often around this time of year do you hear an English person ask, with more than a hint of panic, when Mother’s Day is? But it’s not Mother’s Day they’re actually asking about. It’s Mothering… Read More

Lucy Mangan talks gender jargon for International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day (on Sunday)! Or Happy International Wimmin’s Day, if you are either a) one of the tiny minority of radical second wave feminists who adopted the aberrant spelling as a means of protesting against the word’s apparent derivation from ‘men’, thus mimicking and enshrining women’s supposed derivation… Read More

‘Dressgate’, ‘Propose Day’, and ‘Bennettesque’: February’s Words in the News

As if February didn’t have enough to be getting on with. Candlemas and Groundhog Day (in North America at least) start the month with their predictions about the weather. Then there’s Valentine’s Day, which is great if you’ve got a date, and not so great if you don’t. And this… Read More

Avast! Lucy Mangan gets nautical with your recent word submissions

The submission “jackspeak”, from Tommy, has sent me off on such a voyage across the seas of knowledge that it is only with the greatest effort of will and hauling on the mainbrace (or something) that has allowed me to return to dry land with my findings. “Jackspeak” means… Read More

Collins A to Z of cricketing words and phrases

With the Cricket World Cup in full swing, you might feel stumped by all the talk of googlies, wides and wicket maidens. To help you out, we’ve put together an A to Z of key cricketing terms so you don’t get caught in the slips, run yourself out, or… Read More

Words of Endearment

It’s Valentine’s Day! We hope you have a lovely day with – or find – your sweetheart! To improve your chances this year, we’ve put together this list of terms of endearment from around the world. 1. Portuguese Brazilian: “chuchuzinho” Chuchu is the Portuguese word for… Read More

‘SYRIZA’, ‘#greensurge’, ‘kippers’, and ‘je suis Charlie’: trending words in January

Unfortunately January gave us a tragic start to 2015 with a deplorable terrorist attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The magazine itself was obscure outside of France, but news of the attack generated such widespread sentiment that the hashtag #jesuischarlie immediately took over social media. Read More

Living it! Rhiannon Garth Jones reviews Fluent in 3 Months

Rhiannon Garth Jones is author of the blog What I read today, a compilation of what she thinks might be worth other people reading, and why (with digressions into music and cooking, naturally). She has just finished reading Fluent in 3 Months, by Benny Lewis, as part of the… Read More

‘Tortoise armies’, ‘mansplaining’, and ‘tediocre’ – it can only be Lucy Mangan and the latest new word submissions

Our contributors’ submissions this week range from words plucked from the mires of ancient(ish) history to newborn babes which were nobbut a gleam in modernity’s eye a few short weeks or months ago. Let us proceed chronologically, beginning with tikitaka’s “schiltron”, which derives from the Old… Read More