Language
Are we overusing ‘overhaul’?
Last week, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer were overhauling their stores. Football clubs were madly overhauling teams and we…
A sex education from Aristophanes
The publication of the new Cambridge Greek Lexicon reminded the comedian and classicist Natalie Haynes of her frustrations at school,…
How the Great British Bake Off inspired Great British Railways
‘Why didn’t they call it Very British Railways?’ asked my husband. Unwittingly (as in most of his remarks), he had…
‘Level’ has a bumpy history
‘I must level with you, level with the British public, many more families are going to lose loved ones.’ That…
Shakespeare didn’t need to know the difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’
An item on the BBC news site didn’t mean what it said: ‘The latest move is part of a wider…
The insidious creep of corporate friendliness
The insidious creep of corporate friendliness
‘Religious literacy’ rules risk gagging the press
There should be more ‘religious literacy’. So says the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religion in the Media, chaired by Yasmin…
The importance of gossip (according to the ancients)
Gossip appears to be good for the mental health. That should make the females of the ancient world some of…
The shifting language of shame
As his tweed jacket flapped open to one side of his stomach, my husband stood up unsteadily and arched his…
The dirty truth about ‘sleaze’
‘Sleaze, sleaze, sleaze!’ exclaimed Sir Keir Starmer in Prime Minister’s Questions last week, hoping that a triple serving might stick.…
Do spelling and grammar still matter?
Some universities have announced that spelling and grammar (i.e. morphology and syntax) are not all that important, but quality of…
What’s so great about ‘super’?
‘Wizard,’ said William. ‘Super,’ said Ginger, in William and the Moon Rocket (1954). More recently we have had Alex Salmond,…
How ‘ACAB’ links David Bowie and BLM
A favourite piece of graffiti to spray on the Cenotaph or the plinth of Churchill’s nearby statue is ACAB. It…
America isn’t speaking our language
I haven’t yet read the report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. But, looking at the recommendations,…
The uncomfortable truth about ‘shonky’
A reader sent in a television preview from the Daily Star for Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds in which ‘Brad Pitt leads…
Where did Alex Salmond’s ‘Alba’ party get its name from?
‘What, old monkey-face!’ said my husband with unnecessary lack of gallantry. He was referring to the 18th Duchess of Alba,…
My French lesson has taken a most unexpected turn
‘Alas, David can’t be here this afternoon,’ I told the French teacher as she let me into her light and…
‘Sacred space’ has become a crowded marketplace
‘This is the book that horses wish every equestrian would read,’ says the blurb for Sacred Spaces: Communion with the…
How to kill the English language
Probably, most of you will have only the dimmest idea what a ‘fronted adverbial’ is. I used one in the…
The concrete truth about ‘Formica’
If I ever again accompany my husband to a medical conference in Spain, and want to tell my hosts that…
‘Espouse’ has become divorced from its meaning
What do people think espouse means? It looks fairly plain, since spouses are to have and to hold, or indeed…
The economics of learning languages
There is a kind of conversation which sounds intelligent, and which makes sense at first hearing, but which deeper thought…
Beware the linguistic Trojan horse
It’s the bane of many an author these days: those newspaper-filler Q&As. One I recently filled out included the question:…
From bread to Kate Bingham: the evolution of ‘nimble’
‘I’ll stick to being Brazilian,’ said my husband. It was a family joke. Every time a politician on the radio…
My French lessons with Lord Nelson
Every Friday afternoon the foreign correspondent and I attend a French lady’s home for our one-hour French lesson. The foreign…
