Mind your language
Should things still grow ‘like Topsy’?
I’ve heard two people in the past week make a jocular remark about things just growing ‘Like Topsy’. They were…
Why ‘great’ should be used with great caution
Sir Keir Starmer told his party conference last month that a Labour government would within a year set up a…
What makes a ‘crisis’?
In his picture from 1932, ‘Derrière la gare Saint-Lazare’, Henri Cartier-Bresson caught the moment when a man in a hat…
The problem with Liz Truss’s ‘growth, growth, growth’ slogan
‘You’re easily pleased.’ said my husband when I told him how satisfying I found a chance discovery. It was about…
Why ‘pop’ is popping up everywhere
The Guardian kindly tells us that green is a colour whose time has come: ‘A blazer or a cotton shirt…
What ‘Budget’ and ‘bilge’ have in common
The Budget (which the revolutionary fiscal act last week was technically not) is directly connected with bilge and with one…
When did mourners stop crying and start ‘welling up’?
‘We got a gusher!’ exclaimed my husband in his idea of the accent of a Texan oil prospector. Normally, I’m…
The chronic misuse of ‘dire’
‘Dire?’ said my husband. ‘It’s something chronic.’ He was putting on his idea of an Estuary accent, in a manner…
The cereal ambiguity of ‘corn’
‘Wha, wha?’ said my husband in a slack-jawed way, throwing over a copy of the Guardian, as though it was…
The changing language of ‘mental health’
It is easy to laugh at young people asking for sympathy because ‘I’ve got mental health’. I think I heard…
Why everyone is ‘struggling’
‘Quicksand!’ yelled my husband, flailing his arms wildly. Since he was sitting in his armchair, his dramatic representation of a…
No, Boris Johnson isn’t ‘missing in action’
Someone in the Guardian wrote that Boris Johnson had his ‘out of office’ on, and the Chancellor was ‘missing in…
Will ‘hosepipe ban’ make it into the dictionary?
‘Got any ’ose?’ asked my husband, falling into his Two Ronnies ‘Four Candles’ routine, in which he likes to play…
What do ‘catcalls’ have to do with cats?
‘A law against catcalls?’ asked my husband sceptically. ‘What next, criminalising booing and hissing?’ He often gets the wrong end…
The etymological ingredients of ‘flageons’
‘Don’t you know the answer?’ asked my husband with mock surprise, throwing over to me from his armchair a copy…
The ever-shifting language of ‘culture wars’
‘Come on, old girl,’ said my husband as though encouraging a cow stuck in a ditch, ‘you must know.’ It…
‘Our’ by ‘our’, Boris’s resignation speech
There was a word I didn’t understand in Boris Johnson’s resignation speech (in which he did not resign). He spoke…
‘Pinch’ has long packed a punch
Before pinch as a verb appears in any written sources, it already formed part of surnames. Hugo Pinch was walking,…
Dominic Raab and the problem of ‘distraction’
Dominic Raab blamed distraction forBoris Johnson’s woes when the Tories failed in two by-elections last week. ‘Hehas track records as…
