When Donald Trump says he is ready for military action he often says he (or, rather the US military) is ‘locked and loaded’. The expression is older than I would have expected – recorded from 1940 as an instruction on a military firing range to shooters to ‘lock and load’. So, ‘locked and loaded’ refers to a firearm that has a round in the chamber and the safety catch off, meaning it’s ready to fire. But it is now used more often as figurative language with the meaning of ‘to ready oneself for action or confrontation’. As a non-shooter I had assumed that the words should be reversed – that you would load the chamber with a round, and then use the bolt to lock it in: ‘loaded and locked’. But when I suggested this on radio the talkback callers who knew their weapons rang in large numbers to howl me down and expose my ignorance. They explained in technical detail that ‘locked and loaded’ is the correct sequence. I’ll take their word for that. And hope that Trump is serious when he uses this language.

Speccie reader Phil writes: ‘Can you tell me why the words “everything” and “anything” are now being pronounced everythinK and anythinK by many people?’ The short answer is, no, I’m not sure I can explain this. I have heard what Phil has heard (and so have you) – but why do people do it? They would never write ‘everything’ or ‘anything’ with a terminal K – so why say it that way? It remains one of the great language puzzles of our time. The only guess I can offer is that they are trying to give the words a sharper, clearer, ending. But that is only a guess. Poor language comes from a lazy mouth or a lazy mind – in this case they are not engaging their mind in what their mouth is doing.