Language
The latest edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (published by Merriam-Webster) has now appeared – and it contains 500…
Language
It’s Word of the Year time again, when all the dictionaries announce their chosen winner. The Australian National Dictionary Centre…
Language
We are being constantly warned that economic doom, gloom and disaster are about to hit – because of the impact…
Language
There is an obsession today with something called ‘diversity and inclusion’. But what do those words really mean? And are…
Language
It’s that time of year again – when dictionaries around the world start announcing their ‘Word of the Year’. And…
Language
When I was chatting to Peta Credlin on Sky News the question came up of the word ‘normalcy’. It has…
Language
Is ‘wellness’ really a word? It was coined in America (where else?) in the late 1950s to mean: ‘the state…
Language
During the height of the Aids epidemic a body was established called the ‘Aids Council of NSW’. I’m sure in…
Language
Have you ever come across the ‘Oxford comma’? If you haven’t, here’s a short explanation. When you have a list…
Language
Richard Littlejohn wrote recently in Britain’s Daily Mail about an 18-page Inclusive Language Guide which has been sent out to…
Language
Now we tiptoe carefully into the area of the derogatory and offensive – those being the words used by the…
Language
The word ‘they’ has two legitimate uses and one illegitimate use. The first proper and legitimate use is as the…
Language
According to American journalist Kaylee McGhee White (writing in the Washington Examiner) it is now officially okay to use the…
Language
European and Indian languages seem to be related in the very distant past. Linguists are able, for example, to trace…
Language
The word ‘map’ no longer means just a bit of cartography – it now also means ‘minor attracted person’. In…
Language
The word ‘sovereignty’ is recorded as part of the English language since at least 1340 – a very old word…
Woke language
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) once said: ‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’ And if the woke…
Language
When radicals want to upend society they often cloak their intentions under kind-sounding words. So, if the plan is to…
Language
British journalist Richard Godwin has alerted me to what may be the trendiest word of the moment: ‘namecore’. This is…
Language
As the contest to replace Boris Johnson draws towards its protracted close, we should remember that many of the original…
Language
A Speccie reader has alerted me to the use of an odd word ‘alum’ to refer to the graduates of…
Language
It was Will Self (writing in The Speccie) who drew my attention to the new word ‘uberise.’ He says he…
Language
No sooner had the words ‘blue murder’ appeared on the cover of this august journal than a Speccie reader was…
Language
Here is a delightful phrase which may well become a familiar idiom in English language: ‘weather dependent economy’. I encountered…
Language
No language column can ignore Professor Brendan Murphy’s extraordinary 78-word definition of ‘woman’. As you know, when he was questioned…
