Language
The University of Chicago has what it calls a ‘Parrhesia Program for Public Discourse’ – aimed at teaching students to…
Language
We all know what it means when someone is said to have been ‘thrown under the bus’ by their colleagues…
Language
Raymond from Nedlands, WA, asks for the meaning of ‘identity politics’. Searching through various sources, I can provide a one-word…
Language
We wordsmiths have a principle that ‘a text without a context is a pretext’. This matters because of what some…
Language
In last week’s edition of The Speccie our esteemed editor repeated a widely believed urban myth about the origin of…
Language
When we use Old Aussie we might call a bloke a ‘cove’ – but why? Why is an adult male…
Language
Adam, a Speccie reader, asks about the familiar expression ‘face the music’ – meaning to face up to the consequences…
Language
As if the sheer horrors of the Hamas attacks on Israel weren’t bad enough, now someone has coined the expression…
Language
Is the great old Aussie word ‘bloke’ an offensive word? The army thinks it is. Writing in the Daily Telegraph…
The puppet masters
Among the Western democracies there are increasing signs that things are falling apart – our governments no longer know what…
Language
The expression ‘culture wars’ is having a flush of popularity just now, but it is surprisingly old. Recorded in English…
Language
A headline worth sharing. When King Charles went into hospital to have repair work done on his prostate, Associated Press…
Language
A teacher in America has raised a minor storm in a teacup by banning from the classroom current hip and…
Language
They keep inventing new, so-called ‘phobias’, don’t they? The latest is ‘fatphobia’. A new book has been published called Unshrinking:…
Language
Raymond, a Speccie reader, has coined a new (and possibly very useful) word: ‘twistory’. This neologism is another portmanteau word,…
Language
A Speccie reader in Canberra (what has he done to deserve capital punishment?) asks the origin of the latest label…
Language
They keep doing this to us. Those kids keep inventing new words of obscure origin, and of even obscurer meaning.…
Language
When Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press he was asked if Israel was breaking international…
Language
We are unlikely to forget the look on Anthony Blinken’s face when the word ‘dictator’ slipped out of Joe Biden’s…
Language
My Australian Word of the Year for 2023 is ‘No’. I made the announcement this week on Peta Credlin’s show…
Language
At first glance ‘deafening silence’ looks like an oxymoron – a noun linked to a contradictory adjective. We know all…
Language
I suggest the right word for Hamas is ‘barbarians’. It was the Greeks who coined this word when savage, uncivilised…
Language
They say that in war truth is the first casualty – and the language of truth is certainly being butchered…
Language
The weather bureau tells us that we are now officially in an ‘El Niño event’ and, as a result we…
Language
The word ‘special’ means: ‘Exceptional in quality or degree; unusual; out of the ordinary; excelling in some way’ (Oxford English…
