Language

Does Meghan Markle know what ‘guttural’ means?

30 June 2022 4:00 pm

When the Duke of Sussex heard about the Supreme Court judgment revoking the ruling in Roe vs Wade, ‘His reaction…

Lord Geidt’s ‘odious’ remark

25 June 2022 9:00 am

Lord Geidt said in his resignationletter that he had been put in an odious position. He meant it was hateful,though…

The not-so-sweet roots of ‘nice’

4 June 2022 9:00 am

‘That’s nice,’ said my husband, taking a Nice biscuit with his coffee. It was his little joke. The biscuit is…

The strangeness of station names

28 May 2022 9:00 am

In Kyiv they have voted to changethe names of some metro stations. Heroes of the Dnieper is to become Heroes…

Why nothing ever comes ‘for free’

21 May 2022 9:00 am

‘It’s not as nice as it looks,’ said my husband, not leaving time to look it in the mouth before…

Why disgraced MPs head for the Chiltern Hundreds

14 May 2022 9:00 am

I saw in last week’s Spectatorthat the tractor MP had applied for the stewardship of the Manor of Northstead. After…

The wonder of the Metaphor Map

30 April 2022 9:00 am

‘What’s that?’ asked my husband, looking at my laptop. ‘Fibonacci fossilised?’ His question made no sense, but I saw what…

The linguistic ingredients of ‘salmagundi’

23 April 2022 9:00 am

‘It makes me hungry,’ said my husband when I mentioned the word salmagundi. That is his reaction to many words.…

The Aesopian language of algospeak

16 April 2022 9:00 am

To evade algorithms that hunt down forbidden words, users of platforms like TikTok employ cryptic synonyms. So deadbecomes unalive, and…

What’s the right way to pronounce ‘gif’?

9 April 2022 9:00 am

The man who invented gifs, Stephen Wilhite, has died, aged 74. Controversy survives him – over how to pronounce the…

When did brothers and sisters become ‘siblings’?

2 April 2022 9:00 am

I never cared much for the word sibling, though I hardly knew why. The reason must be that it was…

How do you pronounce ‘Cirencester’ and ‘Marylebone’?

26 March 2022 9:00 am

‘Half! Half! Half!’ exclaimed my husband like a performing sea lion. Not that sea lions perform any more, but you…

Why does everything ‘embolden’ Putin?

12 March 2022 9:00 am

The most emboldened man on earth must be Vladimir Putin. Everything seems to embolden him. Treating Russia as a pariah…

The complicated business of swearing in Ukrainian

5 March 2022 9:00 am

‘This will interest you,’ said my husband, looking up from the smeared screen of his telephone. For once he was…

How 'like' lost its way

26 February 2022 9:00 am

A strange crisis has befallen like. It had long been an object of obloquy and vilification in two functions. The…

How the ancients approached the three Rs

19 February 2022 9:00 am

German archaeologists have found ancient Egyptian tablets covered in repetitive writing exercises and ask — were they pupil punishments? But…

Where’s the ‘mystery’ in mystery plays?

19 February 2022 9:00 am

In The Archers, Ambridge put on its own set of mystery plays dramatising the Nativity and Passion. BBC Radio 4…

When did ‘pikey’ become offensive?

12 February 2022 9:00 am

A policeman sent a colleague who was house-sitting for him a WhatsApp message: ‘Keep the pikeys out.’ He was sacked…

What does ice cream have to do with ‘late capitalism’?

5 February 2022 9:00 am

‘More to my taste is Trockenbeerenkapitalismus,’ said my husband with an intonation that indicated a joke. The joke was a…

What’s so funny about ‘helpmeet’?

29 January 2022 9:00 am

‘What’s so funny?’ asked my husband, accusingly, as I made an amused noise while relaxing with a copy of the…

Is the Duke of York’s title really ‘untenable’?

22 January 2022 9:00 am

‘Nurse! The tenaculum!’ exclaimed my husband in the manner of James Robertson Justice playing the surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt. I’m…

The elementary misuse of ‘alumni’

15 January 2022 9:00 am

My husband is forever being sent magazines from his Oxford college inviting him to give it money. I suggest he…

Why is Microsoft offended by ‘Mrs Thatcher’?

18 December 2021 9:00 am

The interregnum between incumbents is a well-known and often elongated process in the Church of England. I have recently witnessed…

The real ‘scallop’ war: how do you pronounce it?

6 November 2021 9:00 am

‘You say scallops and I say scallops,’ sang my husband in his best Ginger Rogers accents. Since we both pronounce…

Who owns the language?

30 October 2021 9:00 am

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is giving local residents £25,000 grants to enable them to change the names of…