World Wide Words

MY NEW BOOK

The cover of Michael Quinion's book 'Why is Q Always Followed by U?'

Not only a new book, but the first to come from Particular Books, a new imprint of Penguin. It’s out on 2 July and will be available worldwide. The question of the title is just one of 200 that I answer. Each began life on this Web site and its associated e-magazine but every one has been freshly researched to find facts not available when the answer was first written. Such is the pace of etymological discovery, in fact, several had to be rewritten a second time to include new information that came to light during the writing of the book. Almost every one is illustrated by annotated quotations that help readers understand how the words and phrases evolved and to place them in their historical and social context. Read more.

[Michael Quinion, Why is Q Always Followed by U? Word-perfect Answers to the Most-asked Questions about Language, published by Particular Books, an imprint of Penguin Books; hardback, 352pp; publisher’s UK list price £12.99. ISBN-13: 978-1-846-14184-3; ISBN-10: 1-846-14184-2.]

NEW FROM THE E-MAGAZINE THIS WEEK

Collop You may not recognise it, but it’s an old word for a familiar meal: bacon and eggs or ham and eggs. The first recorded example is so old its English needs translation: “I haue no salt Bacon, Ne no Cokeneyes, bi Crist Colopus to maken ...
[Read the whole piece]

I before E except after C There was a mini-fuss about spelling in the British media last week because of a guide, Support For Spelling, that was distributed by the British government to 13,000 primary schools as part of its national ...
[Read the whole piece]

In the Land of Invented Languages “Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?” If you’re able to say “jes” in reply, you’re a member of a smallish group who knows that it means “do you speak Esperanto?”, the language that was created by Dr ...
[Read the whole piece]

RANDOMLY CHOSEN

Bear up It’s an ancient phrase, which has been used in various senses, often literally to carry something up, or to be carried up by some force or action (“he was borne up by the force of the explosion”). The sense you mean, of staying ...
[Read the whole piece]

RECENTLY ADDED PAGES

Wine bottle sizes; I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears; Cucking-stool; Andrew; Bald-faced, boldfaced or barefaced?; Cagmag; Adumbrate; Apozem; Galimatias; Beggar-my-neighbour; Cardigan; Heiligenschein; Cocksure; I Love It When You Talk Retro; Slumgullion; By the skin of one’s teeth; Cute as a bug’s ear; Fiasco; Phantasmagoria; Ephebiphobia; Ampersand; Cuts no ice; Dumbbell; Slang: The People’s Poetry; English is difficult; Passive drinking; Calenture; Well, blow me!.

THE NEXT WEB SITE UPDATE

The next update is due on 11 July, when you should be able to read about the history of the word factotum and discover the stories behind the expressions two hoots and getting one’s ducks in a row.

SIC!

• Department of Ambulatory Architecture. From the BBC site: “Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad is the country’s most prestigious university. Walking through its green and leafy campus, are four mosques.” Thanks to David Lay for spotting that.

• In common with many journals, the Daily Galaxy Web site reported the unveiling of a computerised sign in New York that displays the tonnage of carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere. One of its comments, on the other hand, was entirely its own, and startled Carl Bowers: “Designed by scientists at MIT hanging outside Madison Square Garden ...”

• Mark Jones encountered an intriguing item on the menu in a Dutch restaurant. “One of the two starters was duck’s udders. After checking the Dutch original, rather than the tourist version of the menu, I discovered it was eendenborst or duck breast. I chose the salmon nevertheless.”

• Gavan O’Connor was reading a review of an exhibition on Pompeii at the Melbourne Museum in the July 2009 edition of Royal Auto, the magazine of the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, when he came across this sentence: “Pompeii is also an acronym for sentient death in its most tormented form.”

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