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The news report said that drugs and a number of weapons including grenades were seized during a police raid on…
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What words do you put at the end of an email? Or at the end of a letter? (Does anyone…
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Writing in the Daily Telegraph James Morrow pointed out that the Albanese government suffers from ‘tall poppy syndrome’– dividing the…
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One classic bit of the Aussie verbal culture (with us for many years) is the expression ‘beyond the black stump’.…
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A radio talkback caller described many of the activities of the bureaucrats living in the Canberra bubble as being nothing…
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Sometimes I worry about what is happening to higher education – not just here, but around the English-speaking world. My…
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The word of the moment is undoubtedly ‘monocultural’. In her take-no-prisoners speech at the National Press Club Pauline Hanson said…
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I ran into James Morrow in the corridor the other day – and he told me that he thought he…
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‘Codswallop’ means ‘Nonsense, rubbish, drivel’. The experts at the Oxford think they have nailed it down. They write, ‘Popularised in…
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A report in Perspectives on Psychological Science last April said that people are each speaking about 120,000 fewer words every…
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When ‘lie’ was banned by the Speaker of the House as unparliamentary language, I wondered if it was time to…
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Speccie reader Tim writes: ‘I’m interested to know when (and why) “partner” took on its new meanings. Years ago, I…
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When Donald Trump says he is ready for military action he often says he (or, rather the US military) is…
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My rage against the journalistic abuse of ‘populist/populism’ continues. As I have pointed out in the past, the meaning of…
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There are some silly people (in the US more than here) who like to claim that President Trump is suffering…
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John writes: ‘Here’s a curly one for you, Kel: what about the word Islam? It seems a strange word. Can…
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‘Hypocorism’ is another strange and wonderful word (hip-OCK-ah-riz-um.) The Oxford’s definition is: ‘pet name’. But there is a bit more…
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It was one hundred years ago this year that the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova toured Australia and New Zealand…
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There is a bit of water in the Persian Gulf that is in the news almost every day now –…
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There I was, relaxing one evening, when my phone burbled with a text. It was our distinguished editor with a…
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When I discover a new word I am delighted. ‘Autochthonous’ is one I have seen occasionally, but which I have…
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Are our governments guilty of ‘menticide’? This uncommon word is recorded from 1951, in which year it first appeared in…
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Albanese has spent the whole of his political life a member of Labor’s socialist left. As a result we get…
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Speccie reader Reona writes to ask where the expression ‘peppercorn rent’ comes from. Well, there once was a time when…
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I have finally snapped! I have become so annoyed by lying halfwits misusing the word ‘genocide’ that I am going…
