Formica
If I ever again accompany my husband to a medical conference in Spain, and want to tell my hosts that…
Similar to
‘Blame Kingsley Amis,’ said my husband, with the carelessness of one defying a man out of earshot. The blame, such…
Espouse
What do people think espouse means? It looks fairly plain, since spouses are to have and to hold, or indeed…
Nimble
‘I’ll stick to being Brazilian,’ said my husband. It was a family joke. Every time a politician on the radio…
Titles of courtesy
I agree with Charles Moore (The Spectator, 6 February) that it is a shame the Times is dropping its use…
Grim
‘Thus I refute Bishop Berkeley,’ said my husband, multitasking by kicking the stone and slightly misquoting Samuel Johnson at the…
Kind regards
Suzanne Moore, the Telegraphcolumnist, found it ‘deeply annoying’ when perhaps five years ago she noticed people putting ‘Kind regards’ at…
Polari
In discussing the German low-life cant called Rotwelsch, Mark Glanville (Books, 9 January) referred in passing to Polari, ‘the language…
Performative
Veronica brought me a hundred newspapers so that I could check on one word. Well, she didn’t bring a wheelbarrow,…
Segment
In the aisle of Tesco I stood like one thunderstruck. It was not the print of a man’s naked foot…
Word of the year
In 2015 smombie became the Youth Word of the Year in Germany. In January 2016 a survey found that 92…
Mind your language
‘Try the sports pages,’ said my husband, stirring in his armchair. I was looking for examples of fortuitousused as though…
Strange
‘Forget coronavirus,’ said my husband, ‘the word of the year is strange.’ The strange thing is he’s right. This wasn’t…
Robust
‘Why do they keep saying they need Brazilians?’ asked my husband, coming up for air from a hazy mixture of…
Lounge pants
At the Austrian embassy in Naples, a German diplomatist asked the great beauty Madame de Ventadour if she had been…
Gifting
Boris Johnson, the Telegraphsuggested last week, is understood to have a personal interest in rewilding, ‘recently gifting his father beavers…
Alas
Boris Johnson looked unhappy, as well he might, standing at his indoor lectern last Saturday to announce the new lockdown:…
Cyber
An advertisement from GCHQ provoked angry comment because it seemed to suggest that some ballet dancers would be better working…
Adrenochrome
QAnon, the conspiracy theorist’s conspiracy theory, teaches that President Donald Trump is in secret warfare with a worldwide network of…
Are you guilty of ‘genteelism’?
‘Everyone’s been very kind to my husband and I,’ said someone behind me in a (spaced) queue. That is the…
Bonk
I take it personally that a word I practically saw being born is now unrecognised by people almost old enough…
What ho
In the First Act of Othello, just as things are getting interesting, the audience hears someone calling from offstage: ‘What…
Herd immunity
‘It was the pyres,’ said my husband. He meant the effect of television pictures of cattle, hooves silhouetted against the…
Bat
My husband may not often be right, but he had some cogent criticism of the much-quoted words of Geoffrey Howe…
Uptick
Political commentators love talking about the optics — the way something looks to voters. Just at the moment, though, everyone…
