Language
Vape
Last year, Oxford Languages’ word of the year was goblin mode. Apparently 300,000 voters decided upon it, but I haven’t…
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…
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…
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…
