Collins Word of the Year 2013 is…

Hurrah! Christmas is nearly here. Time to unpack the box of word-baubles the year has given us, wind a few glittering strings of semantics round the tree, sit back and drink deeply of their twinkling delights. Time, in short, to introduce Collins’ words of the year; welcome to our window… Read More

Sleepers – how a word can suddenly find fame!

When we think about new words coming into the dictionary, we often assume that the gap between a word being invented and being added to the dictionary is relatively short. However, a couple of interesting words that were recently selected for the dictionary have taken a long time to find… Read More

To stem the tide of ‘parentnoia’, how about a nice ‘shelfie’?

Well, it’s taken a while but it’s here at last! Christmas – for word nerds at least – has come. Someone (DouglasWinton7, to be exact) has finally submitted ‘floccinaucinihilipiliphication’ – the act, as I’m sure you hardly need me to tell you, or habit of estimating something as… Read More

Lucy Mangan considers all the latest words submitted to the Collins Dictionary

Let us attempt to declutter the dismal organ that passes for my brain by beginning with DebraSmith75’s ‘recognotice’, which she defines as “to identify and observe a thing; to pay special attention to obvious issues.” I have been sitting here for – well, I… Read More

Lucy Mangan has a bag full of new words – see which ones she has pulled out!

MiniNinja has sent me ‘duffin’. Not a duffin, alas, but I’ll take an addition to my word store in lieu of my store cupboard if I must. The duffin – combining as it does the best of the doughnut and the muffin – is the latest member of… Read More

Lucy Mangan discusses fame, scooters, and all things giraffey in her new blog

I once had a friend who, when someone asked her whether she would like to be famous, replied ‘I’d like to be famous enough to be on Desert Island Discs.’ I like that. I like having friends who even when they are dreaming big, dream small. It’s very restful. But… Read More

Have you read Lucy Mangan’s new CollinsDictionary.com blog yet? We suggest that you frinkley do!

Tommy hit a rich and pleasing seam in the word mines this week. The first nugget of nomenclatural novelty, brought out into the light in his grimy hands, is ‘wandalism’. At first I assumed this meant damage to property caused by a large woman stumbling about in overtaxed… Read More

Neanderthal inspired internet usage, the trials and tribulations of making phone calls in Norfolk, and trsgic misspellings – all brought to you by Lucy Mangan

I had heard of ‘data scraping’ – moneill’s submission this week – before but, as with most things internet, didn’t really know what it meant. It gave me the image of the World Wide Web being pegged out like a giant cow hide and people going at it… Read More

Lucy Mangan has been confronting her fears in this week’s blog – just don’t ask her for a meeting about it!

In light of the thrice-weekly horror currently being visited upon the nation by newly fungal-faced Jeremy Paxman’s appearances on Newsnight, it behoves us all to thank am_soara for his or her timely submission of ‘pogonophobia’, or ‘fear of beards’. It will give all the letters I am intending… Read More