Language

What is ‘misogynoir’?

5 April 2025 9:00 am

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been troubled by two verbal peculiarities in a week. The Duchess corrected a…

Why do we diminish ‘compendious’?

29 March 2025 9:00 am

My husband has been telling me, at some length, about the Gamages Christmas catalogue that fired his childhood imagination and…

Do you ‘damp down’ or ‘tamp down’?

22 March 2025 9:00 am

‘Dampfschifffahrt!’ shouted my husband as though it were funny. I had been saying how strange it was that explosive gas…

What does Meghan mean by ‘intentional living’?

15 March 2025 9:00 am

‘What are your intentions towards my daughter?’ said my husband, screwing an imaginary monocle into his eye. We had been…

Are you offended by ‘hard-working families’?

8 March 2025 9:00 am

Scarcely a day passes without a newspaper story about some absurd ‘language guide’ issued by a public body. This week…

Geoffrey Madan and the joy of ‘unusual articles’

1 March 2025 9:00 am

In 1924 Geoffrey Madan retired, aged 29, and devoted himself to books. ‘A genius for friendship, selfless devotion to progressive…

RFK Jr and the curious birth of ‘brainchild’

22 February 2025 9:00 am

‘No, RFK didn’t have a tapeworm eating his brain,’ declared my husband in the rare tone he adopts when he…

Does Rachel Reeves know what ‘kickstart’ means?

15 February 2025 9:00 am

To ‘kickstart economic growth’ is the first (‘number one’) of Labour’s five ‘missions’ to rebuild Britain. That is what the…

In search of Pico della Mirandola, the quintessential Renaissance Man

15 February 2025 9:00 am

Though the scholar himself remains an enigma, his theories about language as a portal to the divine are explored in depth by Edward Wilson-Lee

‘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…