robert groves

‘Election narrative’, ‘Pepsi’, and ‘Unicorn Frappuccino’: April’s Words in the News

3rd May 2017

Unless you’ve been living in a cave underground (and by now you probably wish you were, right?) you’re aware that Theresa May has called a snap general election, to be held on 8 June. That’s this year. Elections are usually a good source of new words, and this one has… Read More

‘Fake News’ makes the News

26th Apr 2017

If 2016 was the year of post-truth, then perhaps 2017 will be the year of fake news. After all, what other kind of news would we have in a post-truth world? The term fake news, despite the best… Read More

Pi Day, Empire 2.0, and Oxford Comma: March’s Words in the News

3rd Apr 2017

There’s always room for pi, even though it has an infinite number of digits, and March is the month of pi day, at least in the United States. Americans list their dates in the Month, Day, Year format, so the 14th of March is abbreviated 3.14. Geddit? The US has… Read More

‘Snackadium’, ‘nerd prom’, and ‘three-line whip’: February’s Words in the News

2nd Mar 2017

What a difference a month makes. And in this case, that difference is zero. The same topics that dominated the news in January, dominated in February. Perhaps we simply have to get used to this. But it’s not all doom and gloom. One light-hearted new word that… Read More

‘Alternative facts’, ‘Executive Orders’, and ‘fantastic relationship’: January’s Words in the News

3rd Feb 2017

If 2016 was the year of post-truth, perhaps 2017 will be the year of alternative facts. That’s the term the Trump Administration has selected for statements that are, to use parliamentary language, economical with the truth. The phrase was coined by “Senior White House Aide” Kellyanne Conway (yes, that is… Read More

Brexit, Trump, and celebrity deaths: the perfect storm of 2016’s Words in the News

10th Jan 2017

On 28 December 2016, an independent comedy production company called Friend Dog Studios produced a mock-trailer of the year 2016 as a horror film. Though not everyone will agree, 2016 was a pretty bizarre year on the world stage. At the start of it, David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher, Alan… Read More

Toblerone, Melania Trump, and Electoral College: November’s words in the news

1st Dec 2016

On Tuesday, 8 November 2016, the world witnessed an unanticipated disaster of the highest possible magnitude. Toblerone, the beloved triangular chocolate bar, reduced in size to avoid having to raise its price. This caused chocolate bar’s name to show up basically everywhere, from mainstream news headlines all the way to… Read More

Pokémon, Article 50, and Regrexit: July’s words in the news

2nd Aug 2016

The latest Harry Potter is all the rage, Clinton is running for President of the United States, and everyone in the world is hunting Pokémon. It’s like my late teens come back to life. But with Brexit. Strange though it may seem in a month that saw the Tour… Read More

“Mic drop”, “bigly”, and “unbound delegate”: May’s Words in the News

31st May 2016

Mic drop, the act of dropping one’s microphone (literally or figuratively) as a dramatic gesture at the end of a speech, rap, or other vocal performance, gained a friend in high places in May when US President Barack Obama did it at the end of his speech to the final… Read More