Language
A headline worth sharing. When King Charles went into hospital to have repair work done on his prostate, Associated Press…
Language
A teacher in America has raised a minor storm in a teacup by banning from the classroom current hip and…
Language
They keep inventing new, so-called ‘phobias’, don’t they? The latest is ‘fatphobia’. A new book has been published called Unshrinking:…
Language
Raymond, a Speccie reader, has coined a new (and possibly very useful) word: ‘twistory’. This neologism is another portmanteau word,…
Language
A Speccie reader in Canberra (what has he done to deserve capital punishment?) asks the origin of the latest label…
Language
They keep doing this to us. Those kids keep inventing new words of obscure origin, and of even obscurer meaning.…
Language
When Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press he was asked if Israel was breaking international…
Language
We are unlikely to forget the look on Anthony Blinken’s face when the word ‘dictator’ slipped out of Joe Biden’s…
Language
My Australian Word of the Year for 2023 is ‘No’. I made the announcement this week on Peta Credlin’s show…
Language
At first glance ‘deafening silence’ looks like an oxymoron – a noun linked to a contradictory adjective. We know all…
Language
I suggest the right word for Hamas is ‘barbarians’. It was the Greeks who coined this word when savage, uncivilised…
Language
They say that in war truth is the first casualty – and the language of truth is certainly being butchered…
Language
The weather bureau tells us that we are now officially in an ‘El Niño event’ and, as a result we…
Language
The word ‘special’ means: ‘Exceptional in quality or degree; unusual; out of the ordinary; excelling in some way’ (Oxford English…
Language
Noel Pearson and others have insisted the Voice referendum ‘is not about race’. Does that make sense linguistically? The word…
Language
A reader has asked me about the common expression ‘virtue-signalling’. The meaning, I think, is fairly clear. It is a…
Australian notes
The Managerial Class Recently I spoke at the Sydney Institute on the subject of George Orwell’s justly famous essay ‘Politics…
Language
Every so often I like to share with you new words being added to dictionaries. Dictionary.com has just added 566…
Language
One of the powers of language is that it can give us the words (the tools) to think about our…
Language
I need to loudly lament (once again) the deceptive misuse of the word ‘mistake’ by people who have a black…
Language
Here’s a brand new Australian political expression I’ve just coined: ‘cane toad politics’. I expect it to take its place…
Language
A national survey has found 64 per cent of Jewish students say they’ve experienced anti-Semitism at university. At Sydney University…
Language
The power (and the usefulness) of language is that it gives us names for ideas. And a name is like…
Language
We all know J.R.R. Tolkien from his epic The Lord of the Rings, voted best novel of the 20th century.…
Language
The Albanese government has established a ‘Makarrata Commission’ with a budget of $5.8 million dollars. So, what is this word…
