NEW FROM THE NEWSLETTER THIS WEEK
Dandiprat When the Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth wrote a letter to a friend in April 1795, she commented on her recent reading, “It is a scarce and very ingenious book; some of the phraseology is so much out of the present ...
[Read the whole piece]
Lukewarm I presume no good answer was given, which is why you’re turning to me? That’s the trouble with these smart lines, they’re fun for a moment but leave you unsatisfied and wanting more. As it happens ...
[Read the whole piece]
Virtual water During the World Water Week conference in Stockholm this week (17-23 August), the environmental group WWF released a report that demonstrates the extent to which the UK consumes the water of ...
[Read the whole piece]
If you subscribed to the newsletter (by e-mail or RSS), you would be able to read every new piece a week earlier. Other features include comments from subscribers and notes on words in the news. The last year’s newsletters are available to sample in our backissue archive.
RANDOMLY CHOSEN
Hop the twig It certainly belongs with all the other phrases the writer used in his piece, like kick the bucket, push up the daisies, go the way of all flesh, and buy the farm, several of which seem to be direct references to that ...
[Read the whole piece]
RECENTLY ADDED PAGES
Skinny; Fescennine; Grawlix; Cleft stick; Know the ropes; Gonfalon; Tom; Waddle; Truepenny; Faffing; Hoodwink; Pharology; Hyperborean; Noggin; Chequered past; Slanging match; Doryphore; Finagle; Flat; Transition Town; Chthonic; Singultient; Ahoy!; Soapbox; Sapid; Contextomy; Chin wag; Gorbellied; Preventative or preventive; Patibulary; Back to square one; Stunned Mullets and Two-pot Screamers; Jiggery-pokery.
THE NEXT WEB SITE UPDATE
The next update is due on 6 September 2008, when you may read about the disquieting colloquial medical term Gossypiboma, and read me defend myself against accusations that I don’t know when to use Indexes and when indices.
TRY MY BOOKS ...
SIC!
• Kelly went to a gynaecologist in Riverside County, California, for a routine examination, only to encounter this notice: “All pregnant women who expect to have a male baby can arrange for circumcision before delivery!!!” These intrauterine operations are a great medical advance, to be sure.
• Over-heated Olympics language: Terry Dowling swears he heard a reporter on BBC News say of the winner of the 100m sprint, “He has literally exploded onto the athletics scene.”
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
This site is designed to work with the current generation of browsers. Some older ones might not be able to display every aspect of the design as it is intended to look, nor some of the special characters. If you want to download an updated browser, we recommend Firefox 3.0.
The main text on every page is best viewed using Microsoft’s Georgia font. If you do not have it on your system, you can download it for Windows or the Apple Mac.
Pronunciations are given in IPA symbols; to view these requires you to have a font on your system that includes IPA characters, such as Lucida Sans Unicode, Charis SIL, Doulos SIL or Arial Unicode MS. If you can read this (/mɛtɛmpˈtəʊsɪs/) as IPA you have a suitable font already installed. The site preference is for Lucida Sans Unicode (click on the font name to download the version for Microsoft Windows). See your system help files for how to install fonts.
