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NEW FROM THE E-MAGAZINE THIS WEEK Witching hour The direct origin is easy enough to find: it is from this: “’Tis now the very witching time of night, / When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out / Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood / And do such ... Two Brewer's Dictionaries This autumn, a new edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable come out, together with a new stable mate, Brewer’s Dictionary of London Phrase and Fable. The first two editions of Dr Ebenezer Cobham ... Colcannon Night We are at Halloween, the night that is traditionally the end of the harvest and of summer, when the veil between life and death weakens and spirits may walk abroad. In Ireland, years ago, it was usual to mark the day by ... Tabnabs These are well known to crews of British merchant navy ships and North Sea oil rigs. They’re pastries or cakes, baked on board, that are usually served at tea breaks, morning or afternoon. The first known user of the term ... UPDATED PIECES ON THE SITE Anfractuosity This refers to a channel, crevice or passage full of windings and turnings, not quite a maze, though some mazes certainly take on an anfractuous appearance, one that is sinuous or winding. One sense is of a broken or ... Nihilartikel If you have a copy of the New Oxford American Dictionary, please disregard the entry for esquivalience, which is supposedly the wilful avoidance of one’s official responsibilities or the shirking of duties. It has been ... RANDOMLY CHOSEN Alegar and beeregar I’ve combined these two words into one entry because they were names for similar things, and both are now obsolete. It’s obvious enough where the first part of each of these names comes from — ale and beer ... RECENTLY ADDED PAGES Talaria; Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary; Pico-projector; Epigenome; Garth; Monkey wrench; Grasp the nettle; Punchline; Scrumping; Collapse of stout party; Hard lines; Abditory; Herf; Writing and Script; Agrestic; Topsy-turvy; It’s All in a Word; Jorum; Past master; The F Word; Pandiculation; Bitter end; How to Promote your Dictionary; Ostrobogulous; Dozenal; Terrific; Freelance; Ripsnorter; Unipedal; Bully pulpit; Cunicular; Trivial; Aristology. THE NEXT WEB SITE UPDATE The next update is due on 14 November, when you should be able to read about the extremely rare (but fascinating) word acersecomic, the British colloquial term muggins and whatever else turns up in the next seven days that looks interesting. MY NEW BOOK 
[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.]
OR TRY MY PREVIOUS BOOKS ...
SIC! • Charlotte Bulmer’s local church’s noticeboard advertised a lecture titled “Your Church: it’s history”. Those attending who were expecting an account of the demise of Christianity would have been surprised by a description of the 13th-century building and its development over the years. • It makes sense when you think about it, but the opening sentence of a piece on the Philadelphia Daily News site on 17 October startled John Politis: “My daughter, Eve, will be 8 tomorrow, and it seems like just yesterday that my wife told me she was pregnant.” • Department of long-distance birthing: Ian Somers read an account on Teletext on 18 October of a premature birth on a ferry in the English Channel: “The ship was around 30 miles south east of Start Point. A coastguard helicopter winched the 38-year-old mother from Bognor Regis and child from the vessel.” • In the US, Randall Bart heard a radio commercial for a jewellery store, which talked about the advantages of taking your old stuff into their store, where they will give you cash at once, rather than posting it to a competitor. They urged, “Don’t get scammed or ripped of by anyone else.” Mr Bart appreciates their concern. • The Eastern Province Herald of Port Elizabeth in South Africa, Gerhard Burger tells us, reported on 12 October that the list of China’s super-rich was headed by a “rechargeable battery tycoon”. But how long will he keep going when you’ve recharged him? 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 3.5. 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 them, 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.
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Last updated 7 Nov. 2009
E-Magazine
Try the weekly World Wide Words e-magazine — it features words in the news, weird words, new(ish) words, old words, words people ask questions about, and even the occasional grovelling correction.
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