Susie Dent’s Top 10s: Ten lexical gaps
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?...
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?...
Kuşköy is a small farming village located in the Pontic Mountains in northern Turkey. For three centuries, farmers living here have communicated a...
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...
what3words divides the entire planet into 10 feet squares. Each square is assigned a unique three-word combination and with just 25,000 different...
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...
Language is peculiar in its ability to cause such irritation. Within the same English language, there's not just mutiny over different local dialects,...