You learn something new every day. Today I learned something about one of my favorite phrases. Do you know what “dog’s bollocks” meant originally? (I bet you don’t.) Here’s a clue: it represented what the dog is apparently doing in the picture above. And, perhaps more importantly, do you know what the phrase means today? Continue reading
In recent language news: a trilingual pop artist, singing trilingually; a dating trend gets a trendy name; a capital city changes its name; a typeface makeover; and more … Continue reading
If you’re a Billions fan, you’ll be familiar with Bobby Axelrod, the ambitious American billionaire manager of a hedge fund called Axe Capital. You might also know that Bobby is played by the British actor Damian Lewis. If you had the choice, would you rather be a British billionaire or an American one? (That’s setting aside the difference in currency values, and how you might choose to spend your loot on either side of the Atlantic.) If you know your billions, you might well choose one over the other, and here’s why. Continue reading
Pencil-neck: definition from Oxford English Dictionary: Continue reading
Just in case, like me, you can’t remember the difference between bathos and pathos, here’s a refresher. And no, they don’t mean the same thing. There’s also a surprising connection between pathos and passion … Continue reading
I learned a new word today: copypasta. And what better place to discover it than on the Pretentious Classical Music Elitists Facebook group page. So deliciously 21st-century and strangely paradoxical. And in case you don’t know what it means ….
We all vaguely remember those ghastly terms bandied about in our English lessons: the dangling modifier and the subordinating conjunction, the subjunctives and indicatives, direct and indirect articles, a hanging participle, past and pluperfects. Not to mention that sad little gerund. Let’s face it: few of us know what any of them means. So Glosso decided to just pair them up with members of Trump’s family and administration — past and present, perfect or plu-, diacriticals, questioned and statemented, relative or not. The results are fun: when applied to this cast of colorful characters, all those lovely grammatical terms come into their own and spring to life with whole new meanings. See Glosso’s list below of 20 politicians or participles in Trump’s irregular imperfect tense. Enjoy the ride … Continue reading
Continuing Glosso’s short series* on “Words with Partners”, let’s look at foodie word couples. Some of these famous couples, which are technically “Siamese twins” (or “conjoined words” – see Thursday’s post on that subject), are phrases or expressions in their own right with meanings beyond the food pairings they name. Can you think of any more? [Update: a few more have been added, thanks to Candice*.] Continue reading
The Right Honourable Boris Johnson
We’re going to focus on just two news stories this past week, both of which gave us a lesson in English vocabulary that we really didn’t need. We were introduced, respectively, to a vulgar slang word and an old derogatory term for unmarried women. The first lesson was taught to us by a Right Honourable former Member of Parliament – who has served, incidentally, as Mayor of London and Foreign Secretary, and who (I believe) still has his eye on the Big Job in Britain – during a radio interview. The other was given to us in a very dubious tweet — but not (somewhat surprisingly) from the great orange Tweeter himself. …
It’s Glossophilia’s 8th birthday! We’re celebrating with phrases that contain the word “eight”. It was difficult to come up with eight (there really aren’t that many!), so three of them are a bit dodgy: please add any I might have missed in the comments below. [Update: we now have nine, thanks to Jim H.] Continue reading