Should ‘suicide’ mean pig-killing?
There was a marvellous man in Shakespeare’s day known as John Smyth the Sebaptist. ‘In an act so deeply shocking…
Why you might not want corridors in your historical novel
I read C.J. Sansom’s novel Dissolution on the train recently with pleasure. For an historical novel narrated in the 1530s,…
How Ebola got its name
It should perhaps be called Yambuku fever, since that was the village in Zaire (as it was then, now the…
What’s good for the goose is bad for the proverb
‘Goosey, goosey gander,’ my husband shouted at the television, like someone from Gogglebox. It’s not so much that he thinks…
The fascinating history of dullness
At least I’ve got my husband’s Christmas present sorted out: the Dull Men of Great Britain calendar. It is no…
How did Mark Reckless get his surname?
When I first heard ‘Wonderwall’ being played in a public house, in 1995 I suppose, I thought it was some…
Dot Wordsworth on language: Why do we call it ‘Islamic State’?
I’m puzzled by the dropping of the one part of the name of the Islamic State that seems certain. That…
The rhetorical power of ‘never’, from Ian Paisley to King Lear
He won’t be remembered as Lord Bannside, but Ian Paisley will be remembered for shouting: ‘Never, never, never, never.’ The…
Knee-jerkers vs knee-tremblers
A little joke by Paddy, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, turned upon something to be shunned. Conservative ministers, he said, had…
‘Escalate’: an exciting new way to say ‘pass the buck’
Shaun Wright, the police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire, spoke to Sky television last week about how little he…
A bitter struggle with the dictionary
‘Don’t mind if I do,’ is one of husband’s stock phrases — jokes he would think them — in this…
What’s humanitarian about a humanitarian crisis?
‘Our first priority,’ David Cameron said this week, ‘has of course been to deal with the acute humanitarian crisis in…
Is Boris Johnson standing for Parliament — or running for it?
‘Boris Johnson broke cover yesterday to declare that he will run for parliament,’ the Times reported last week. The Mirror…
Should you be prejudiced against ‘pre-’?
‘Pre-diabetes is an artificial category with virtually zero clinical relevance,’ said an American professor in the Times. A friend of…
The mystery of the missing Mrs
I don’t much care for being called Wordsworth. Oh, the name is rather distinguished, though it came from my husband,…
Does 'autonomy' mean anything any more?
My husband is constantly amused by talk of patient autonomy — for people who want to have a limb lopped…
Origins of the toe-rag
‘I am glad to say that I have never seen a toe-rag,’ said my husband, assuming, as unconvincingly as one…
Just how old-fashioned is Labour's 'cost of living' campaign?
Labour’s appeal to the cost of living has a rather old-fashioned feel to it: as if the whole nation still…
Diffuse, defuse and the damnably confused
It’s funny how people hardly know what they are saying. I read recently of diplomats going to Riyadh ‘to diffuse…
The bloody battle for the name Isis
‘This’ll make you laugh,’ said my husband, looking up from the Daily Telegraph. For once he was right. It was…
Terrorists still can't 'execute' anyone
During the sudden advances of ISIS in Iraq, one visual image stood for their brutality. As the Daily Mail reported…
Why would a Danish queen say 'basta'?
My husband heard me in the kitchen exclaim: ‘What would I do without you?’ He curiously imagined I was referring…
Square meals didn't start in Nelson's navy – but you could get one in a gold-rush town
I never dare go with my husband to any restaurant that uses square plates or he will play up the…
The sinister new meaning of ‘support’
When I asked my husband why paramedical professions were given to remaking the language in strange ways, he replied in…
‘Basta’ must be the Queen’s English — a Queen used it
My chickens do not usually come home to roost so rapidly. Only a fortnight ago I wrote that ‘some people use…
