The Lost World of Floriography

14th May 2015

In honour of the world’s most prestigious Chelsea Flower Show coming up next week, Hazel Gaynor, author of A Memory of Violets, talks us through the language of flowers. While researching my novel A Memory of Violets I discovered the wonderful world of… Read More

Scrabble Week

12th May 2015

What in the name of Scrabble is happening? Over 6,500 new playable Scrabble words join the Collins Official Scrabble Wordlist this May. To celebrate the biggest update in 4 years, Collins are hosting Scrabble Week 21-28 May. Sign up for a week of… Read More

Any ‘quamments’? Lucy Mangan questions and comments on your new word submissions

8th May 2015

Quuuuiiiick – let’s get these last few election terms out before…well, before the new election term begins. “Milifan” and “Milifandom” (submitted by moneill) came to prominence just after my last blogpost, which rounded up previous GE2015-specific words, and refers to the – primarily young – coterie of Ed Miliband supporters… Read More

Etymology Corner – Election ‘Candidates’

1st May 2015

With a general election occurring in Britain on May 7, there is no shortage of candidates seeking votes. The history of the word ‘candidate’ goes back to ancient Rome, where people who stood for political office would wear specially whitened togas while campaigning. These men came to be… Read More

‘Kitchen-sinking’, ‘Milifan’, and ‘Death Star’: April’s Words in the News

1st May 2015

April is the cruellest month, at least when it’s the month before a General Election. I suppose political vocabulary is unavoidable in this month’s post. A recent television discussion programme asked if this election campaign has been relatively “sterile”, and indeed the search terms have been pretty boring. Read More

Will in the Words

23rd Apr 2015

In honour of Shakespeare Day, Christopher Moore, author of The Serpent of Venice, reminds us of Shakespeare’s gift to the English language. We all know the poet and playwright, but Shakespeare the wordsmith also coined more than 1700 original words in the English Language. Proper… Read More

‘Ecofiscal’, ‘Scotiaphobia’ and ‘Disguss’ – Lucy Mangan casts her vote for your election words

23rd Apr 2015

Aha! I see that it has not gone unnoticed amongst our ever-observant readers and contributors that there is a little something I like to call a general election afoot, and you have been submitting your terms according. Beardyfox has provided us – perhaps optimistically, perhaps a little plaintively?… Read More

A Scrabble Game of Thrones

13th Apr 2015

How would A Game of Thrones characters fare in the world of Scrabble? To celebrate National Scrabble Day and the return of Game of Thrones today, we’ve scored the characters of the book and TV show by their names to find out who would rule on the Iron Throne according… Read More

Lucy Mangan’s springtime submissions: ‘babywearing’, ‘hormy’ and ‘studdle’

10th Apr 2015

Welcome to the primaveral blog post! Blog post and welcome supplied by me, ‘primaveral’ – meaning ‘occurring or pertaining to early spring’ – supplied by Daved_Wachman, though I’m sure he would welcome you also if he were here. Sticking with the theme of new life and regeneration, tikitaka gives… Read More