Posts by: Susie Dent

Life is good. It's a bank holiday weekend and Susie Dent has provided the definitive list of the ten best curiosities in the English language....

What is the ‘drink’ equivalent of ‘feeding’ someone? What do you call the mortification of tripping over in public and trying to recover your aplomb?...

Malaphors - a blend of malapropisms and metaphors. Whether you like them, dislike them, or still aren't entirely sure what they are, this week's top...

I arrived late to the beauty of Scots. While I have been steeped in the vocabulary of the Oxford English Dictionary for over three decades, it is only...

Have you suspired recently? Many of us have, possibly without knowing it, for ‘suspire’ is a beautiful, all-but-forgotten word from the 15th cen...

Most of us have encountered some of the more bizarre place names in Britain. Little Snoring, Itchingdon, Pity Me, and, of course, Shitterton, have all...

Among the plentiful rewards of a lifetime spent with dictionaries are the daily discoveries of words that have somehow been consigned to the lexical...

Ugsome: it’s a word from the past I like to resurrect when I encounter something that is really, truly revolting. The ‘ug’ part is a borrowing from...

From the mysterious Uncle Bob to the real McCoy and an intelligent Alec, the English language has plenty of examples of dictionary characters. This...

Language is peculiar in its ability to cause such irritation. Within the same English language, there's not just mutiny over different local dialects,...

In the second installment of her series on Great Big Story, Susie Dent looks at phrases from whisky measurements to pebble weights, with this week's...

In a brilliant series that we're delighted to be able to bring to Great Big Story, British lexicographer Susie Dent will break down the stories behind...