Language
Supermajority
‘Wizard,’ said William. ‘Super,’ said Ginger, in William and the Moon Rocket (1954). More recently we have had Alex Salmond,…
ACAB
A favourite piece of graffiti to spray on the Cenotaph or the plinth of Churchill’s nearby statue is ACAB. It…
Language barriers
I haven’t yet read the report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. But, looking at the recommendations,…
Shonky
A reader sent in a television preview from the Daily Star for Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds in which ‘Brad Pitt leads…
Alba
‘What, old monkey-face!’ said my husband with unnecessary lack of gallantry. He was referring to the 18th Duchess of Alba,…
Low life
‘Alas, David can’t be here this afternoon,’ I told the French teacher as she let me into her light and…
Sacred space
‘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…
Formica
If I ever again accompany my husband to a medical conference in Spain, and want to tell my hosts that…
Espouse
What do people think espouse means? It looks fairly plain, since spouses are to have and to hold, or indeed…
Opportunity knocks
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:…
Nimble
‘I’ll stick to being Brazilian,’ said my husband. It was a family joke. Every time a politician on the radio…
Low life
Every Friday afternoon the foreign correspondent and I attend a French lady’s home for our one-hour French lesson. The foreign…
Titles of courtesy
I agree with Charles Moore (The Spectator, 6 February) that it is a shame the Times is dropping its use…
Grim
‘Thus I refute Bishop Berkeley,’ said my husband, multitasking by kicking the stone and slightly misquoting Samuel Johnson at the…
Kind regards
Suzanne Moore, the Telegraphcolumnist, found it ‘deeply annoying’ when perhaps five years ago she noticed people putting ‘Kind regards’ at…
Barometer
New normal Why have so many people started saying ‘normalcy’ rather than ‘normality’? — Normalcy has been traced back to…
Polari
In discussing the German low-life cant called Rotwelsch, Mark Glanville (Books, 9 January) referred in passing to Polari, ‘the language…
Performative
Veronica brought me a hundred newspapers so that I could check on one word. Well, she didn’t bring a wheelbarrow,…
Words to that effect
In his 37-book Natural History, Pliny the Elder (d. ad 79) wondered why we wished people ‘Happy new year’ (primum…
Segment
In the aisle of Tesco I stood like one thunderstruck. It was not the print of a man’s naked foot…
Word of the year
In 2015 smombie became the Youth Word of the Year in Germany. In January 2016 a survey found that 92…
Mind your language
‘Try the sports pages,’ said my husband, stirring in his armchair. I was looking for examples of fortuitousused as though…
Strange
‘Forget coronavirus,’ said my husband, ‘the word of the year is strange.’ The strange thing is he’s right. This wasn’t…
