World Wide Words

NEW FROM THE E-MAGAZINE THIS WEEK

Epigenome This term of the biological sciences has been around for decades but it has been specialist, unknown to the general public. That changed to some extent last week when newspapers reported a paper that had appeared in the science ...
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Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary Lexicographers know from historical example and the nature of the job that they’re in for a long haul. Samuel Johnson thought his dictionary project would take three years ...
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Talaria If we wanted to invent a classical replacement for the idiom from head to toe, we might choose from petasus to talaria. The latter is one of those words — like aglet for the little tube at the end of a shoelace or philtrum for the ridges in the ...
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RANDOMLY CHOSEN

Gafiate Don’t bother to look this one up in your dictionary, as the chances are slim that you will find it. I was baffled by it when it turned up in David Langford’s science-fiction newsletter Ansible Link: “As fans die or gafiate ...” (that word ...
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RECENTLY ADDED PAGES

Pico-projector; 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; Crêpe hanger; Beghilos; Out like Lottie's eye; Toad-in-the-hole; Unputdownable.

THE NEXT WEB SITE UPDATE

The next update is due on 7 November, when you should be able to read about a couple of terms associated with Halloween, Colcannon Night (an old term for the night itself) and witching hour. A third piece is to be a review of the new edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

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 be published by Particular Books, a new imprint of Penguin. The title question 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. Most are illustrated by annotated quotations to help readers understand how the words and phrases evolved and to place them in their historical and social context. Find out more or learn what the American lexicographer Erin McKean thinks of the 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?

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