Watch out, Lucy Mangan’s about! Read her take on the first batch of submitted words of the New Year!

As the new year wears on, we will probably have less need of it but while the scent of resolution and self-denial still hangs dispiritingly in the air, you might be in need of dingcap’s submission to our first batch of new dictionary entrants for 2014, “brunner” –… Read More

Lucy Mangan has put together her New Year resolutions!

Hello again, and happy 2014 to you all! I am informed that under new EU legislation it is possible to make New Year resolutions at any time up to January 31st, so here are mine: 1. Design – or, in view of the fact that I draw with… Read More

CollinsDictionary.com ‘Word of the Year’ – the changing face of words

Collins has chosen a shortlist of emerging words submitted by its users this year, including ‘twerking’ and ‘phablet’, to capture the essence of 2013, but decided to appoint the established word ‘geek’ as its ‘Word of the Year’ following overwhelming public support in September 2013 to change the main definition… Read More

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