Weather Words – The Great British Fascination with Forecasting

According to The Telegraph newspaper, talking about the weather is the ‘top British trait’ – a habit that dates back to when Julius Caesar blamed his failed invasion of Britannia on gale-force winds. This obsession is unsurprising, given the unpredictable nature of the UK’s weather. In fact… Read More
3 people pouring water from a bucket over themselves for ice bucket challenge

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
Spectacles on top of a pile of books

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,… Read More