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Mind your language

Where did Boris Johnson’s ‘gloomsters’ come from?

10 August 2019

9:00 AM

10 August 2019

9:00 AM

When Boris Johnson hit out at ‘the doomsters and the gloomsters’, I was willing to believe that the word gloomster existed. Well, it does now.

English abounds in elements like the suffix ster by which new words may be generated. We know without thinking about it that words ending in ster are slightly derogatory.

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