words in the news

Our lexicographers respond to the ‘Essex Girl’ debate

28th Oct 2016

Collins applauds the campaign by The Mother Hub to change the stereotypical view of Essex women, which has raised some interesting points around how words are included in, or excluded from, dictionaries. Here at Collins, we believe our duty as a dictionary publisher is to report the… Read More

Brangelina, Dampfnudel, and tsunami of abuse: September’s Words in the News

28th Sep 2016

A recurring theme of this year’s “new words” blog posts has been old words cropping up again in a slightly new form or context, whether it’s the recent European Union Referendum recycling political jargon from the Scottish Independence Referendum, or a true blast from the past like Pokémon returning for… Read More

Another day, another handful of terms to add to our ever-growing list of Brexit terminology

16th Sep 2016

New contributor iancim brings us Wexit, which he defines as “the possible withdrawal of Wales and England from the European Union” but there seems – not for the first time around this topic – some dispute about this. It may be used to make some nationalistic point… Read More

Zombie knife, British invasion, and Traingate: August’s words in the news

31st Aug 2016

There are some words and phrases that instantly make you go “Woah, what does that mean?” And zombie knife is one of them. So what is a zombie knife, why do you need one, and where can you get one? Well, zombie knives are (allegedly) decorative or novelty… 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

Brexit v Bremain: the Language of the EU Ref

20th Jun 2016

Before Brexit, there was Grexit. But while Brexit (from “Britain” or “British” and “exit”) refers to Britain’s potential departure from the European Union, Grexit only hypothesized Greece’s exit from the eurozone. Almost as soon as Britain joined the EU (then the European Economic Community) in 1973, there have… 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

#FreeTheP, Beyhive, and “back of the queue”: April’s Words in the News

5th May 2016

One of the most unlikely success stories in television history has got to be the meteoric rise of Game of Thrones, which returned to television screens for its sixths (and, allegedly, final) series in late April. Who could have predicted that a House of Cards-cum-Borgias-esque saga of political backstabbing set… Read More

Dog chipping, living wage, and superdelegate: We take a look back at March’s Words in the News

18th Apr 2016

The best thing I can say about dog chipping is that It’s not what I initially thought it was. It refers to the process of planting a sterile microchip containing identifying details under your pet dog’s skin: a digital-age improvement over the traditional metal collar tag. Also called microchipping, the… Read More