word submissions

From ‘pregret’ to ‘verklempt’, Lucy Mangan takes a look at your latest word submissions

22nd Jul 2016

Our increasingly turbulent times are again reflected in readers’ latest submissions. Since we last spoke, there have been more terrorist attacks around the world, more police shootings in the US, continuing post-Brexit shenanigans this side of the pond and the nomination of an orange madman as the Republican presidential candidate. Read More

From ‘bregret’ to ‘haven assets’, Lucy Mangan takes a look at your recent word submissions

4th Jul 2016

Brokay. Let’s brget it all brout of the way brnow, yes, and brmove onto other things. There’s Bregret (from contributor MelonyLiar) amongst those who voted to leave the EU but woke up on June 24 to find that what they (Bregrexiteers, from AustinAllegro) intended as a cathartic protest had… Read More

From ‘boggle’ to ‘Michilimackinac’, Lucy Mangan takes a look at your recent word submissions

16th Jun 2016

I am writing this as a flotilla of boats full of men making rude gestures and shouting impenetrable insults at each other (“That dinghy is from Goldman Sachs!” being one we shall have to unpick at leisure once we reach calmer waters) in what they claim is an effort to… Read More

Lucy Mangan takes a look at some of your recent word submissions

3rd Jun 2016

I don’t know about you, but with still almost three weeks to go until the referendum I am already beginning to suffer from Brexistentialism. Contributor Beatrix111 defines it as “the belief that the UK would be better off leaving the UK and being a free agent in a deterministic and… Read More

Lucy Mangan checks out our recent word submissions, from ‘maternity moon’ to ‘ackle’.

16th May 2016

After last week’s “peternity/pawternity leave” (the time off granted by some super-civilised companies to people who need to settle a recently-acquired pet or care for a sick one) comes “meternity leave” and “maternity moon.” The former was coined by author (of a book entitled – ta-da! – Meternity) Meghann Foye… Read More

From ‘nanwar’ to ‘gastrique’ Lucy Mangan takes a look at some of your hilarious word submissions

27th Apr 2016

Well, this week’s submissions have been a series of shocks and misdirections and no mistake, yer little monkeys! First was “nanwar” which was submitted, unusually, by the good people manning BBCStore’s Twitter account. For a few terrible moments I thought it was an announcement for a new show. “Nanwars!… Read More

Lucy Mangan on the your latest word submissions

14th Apr 2016

Well, goodness me, what have we here? First, from new contributor patrick_gooch comes “amalgamerge”, a kind of tautologous portmanteau (tautomanteau? LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN, PEOPLE) apparently meaning “to amalgamate slowly and stealthily”, though I’m not quite sure where the slowness – etymologically speaking – comes from. And then,… Read More

Lucy Mangan takes a look at your recent word submissions before Easter hits

24th Mar 2016

How have we left it this far into the American president-picking process to enjoy the fact that the archaic English word “trumpery” means “nonsense; something without use or value”, “showy and worthless” or any combination of the above. The only way it could be improved would be if someone went… Read More

It’s World Book Day and Lucy Mangan looks at some really ‘conooper’ word submissions from Moville Community College

3rd Mar 2016

In celebration of World Book Day we have a special delivery today, from the students at Moville Community College in Donegal. Kay Ward and her students were looking at poetic techniques in class and talking about why poets use certain words instead of others and even sometimes make them up. Read More