Language

‘Loved ones’ are everywhere at this time of year

8 February 2025 9:00 am

‘My heart will melt in your mouth,’ said my husband gallantly, unwrapping some leeks from a copy of the Sun…

Is ‘legacy’ an insult?

25 January 2025 9:00 am

Is being ‘infamous’ a bad thing?

30 November 2024 9:00 am

John Prescott, so Dominic Sandbrook observed last week, ‘infamously exchanged punches with a protestor in full view of the cameras’.…

Is ‘Chinatown’ offensive?

23 November 2024 9:00 am

I’ve heard people using back-to-back housing to mean terraces separated by back yards. But strictly, back-to-back houses are built against…

Does ‘tummy’ turn your stomach?

2 November 2024 9:00 am

‘How old does he think you are?’ asked my husband when I told him my GP had asked me if…

Do you ‘cock a snook’ – or snoot?

26 October 2024 9:00 am

‘This is interesting, darling,’ my husband called out from beside his whisky while I was doing the washing-up. The interesting…

Inside the Welsh village where English speakers aren’t welcome

5 October 2024 9:00 am

On a Saturday morning, no life stirs. The village café is closed and the ancient church of St Beuno’s is…

The death of widowhood

28 September 2024 9:00 am

There were many tributes paid to the Jersey aid worker Simon Boas when he died of throat cancer in July,…

The meaning of ‘moot’? It’s debatable

21 September 2024 9:00 am

In Florence there was a stone on which Dante sat in the evenings, pondering and talking to acquaintances. One asked…

Are you ‘very demure’?

14 September 2024 9:00 am

What does ‘maidan’ have to do with cricket?

7 September 2024 9:00 am

Freddie Flintoff recently called the Maidan ‘the home of cricket’. For supporters of Ukraine’s independence, the Maidan saw continual demonstrations…

When did monkeypox become ‘mpox’?

31 August 2024 9:00 am

Writing about monkeypox in The Spectator in May 2022, Douglas Murray repeated a formula he had put forward in 2020,…

What’s the right way to voyage?

24 August 2024 9:00 am

My husband has ordered a copy of Craig Brown’s new book, out next week, a bit late for my birthday.…

Immateriality – or irrelevance?

17 August 2024 9:00 am

In The Importance of Being Earnest Jack Worthing was given his surname by Mr Thomas Cardew, who happened to have…

What is ‘thuggery’?

10 August 2024 9:00 am

The word that Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, chose to describe the action of rioters was more interesting than…

The hidden depths of ‘deep dive’

27 July 2024 9:00 am

My husband has taken to crying out or braying ‘Haar, ha!’ at the wireless whenever he hears something particularly foolish,…

Is Donald Trump a ‘badass’?

20 July 2024 9:00 am

Logan Paul, a wrestler with 23 million YouTube subscribers, called Donald Trump’s immediate reaction to his shooting ‘the most badass…