“Mandalay” by Rudyard Kipling

Myanmar, Bagan

Boris Johnson, Britain’s foreign secretary, yesterday started reciting lines from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Mandalay” while inside a Myanmar temple during an official visit to the former British colony. He was on a live mic (and on camera) at the time, being filmed for a Channel Four documentary; the British ambassador, Andrew Patrick, who was chaperoning Johnson on the visit to Yangon’s sacred Shwedagon Pagoda, was quick to remind him that citing from the colonial-era poem was inappropriate. Here’s the poem in full: Continue reading →

X v Y: To underestimate or overestimate: interchangeable, but only when it can’t be done?

proms

During September, Glossophilia is looking at word pairs that often get muddled up with each other, or that essentially mean the same thing. Today’s is underestimate vs. overestimate. Continue reading →

The British “public school”: what does public really mean? Private?

etonschoolboys   British public schoolboys 

Glosso’s “X v Y” series tackles the complicated matter of British schools: when are they public, and when are they private? Can any actually be both? Continue reading →

X v Y: When it comes to the line, do you “tow” it or “toe” it?

Do you toe the line …

raceline

… or tow the line?

towline     

Are towing and toeing both correct, when it comes to the line? Glosso’s X v Y series takes a look … Continue reading →

X v Y: Sarcasm and jealousy: the darker sides of irony and envy (and the irony of Aristotle)

greeneye

Glosso’s series, “X v Y”, takes a look at two sets of words — envy and jealousy, irony and sarcasm — that are often treated as synonyms but actually have substantially different meanings. Continue reading →