Macmillan Dictionary Blog

Paraskevidekatriophobia – language and words in the news

Kati Sule — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:09:18 +0000

Paraskevidekatriophobia is the new BuzzWord this week on Macmillan Dictionary. ‘Paraskevi… what?’ you ask. Knowing a bit of Greek and a bit about word formation will help you get to the end of this word. The term paraskevidekatriophobia is based on the Greek words paraskevi (’Friday’) and dekatria (’thirteen’) with -phobia...

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Casting a spell on English (part three)

Stephen Bullon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:10 +0000

There are a number of words in English which end with the consonant m followed by the consonant n. Words like hymn, condemn, solemn. We don’t pronounce the n so the words are pronounced /hɪm/, /kənˈdem/, and /ˈsɒləm/. When they form derived words, such as hymnal, condemnation, or solemnity, then the letter n becomes pronounced: [...]

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Language and words in the news – 6 November, 2009

Jonathan Cole — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:06:55 +0000

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. Global English Can you speak our [...]

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Guy Fawkes’ night: time to celebrate villains, slang, and three types of banger

Jeremy Bale — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:05 +0000

English loves short, direct, expressive, onomatopoeic words, of Germanic origin, with multiple meanings – like bang, crash, smash and whoosh. They are a fertile source of slang, and a popular word can – confusingly – acquire different meanings. A topical example is banger and three of its meanings are given below: Banger 1 Bonfire Night has come...

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Cardiganed old duffers? A lexicographer responds

Michael Rundell — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:45:37 +0000

The sad news that Chambers Dictionary is about to lose its lexicographic staff prompted a sympathetic article in the Times. Its author, Allan Brown, contrasted the efforts of Internet dictionaries (“pop-cultural hogwash”) with what he regarded as the work of “proper” lexicographers (“we know that our tongue is safe in their hands”). Very nice of...

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Keep yer pants on!

Laine Cole — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:25 +0000

I wear pants and my daughter wears trousers. Ha! You see now, depending on where your familiarity lies you will have either me in my underwear or my daughter in a tweed three-piece suit with a monocle in her eye … sort of. Pants in BE (British English) = underwear. Pants in AE (American English) = well, trousers. Is [...]

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Pseudocide – language and words in the news

Kati Sule — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:30:05 +0000

Pseudocide is the new BuzzWord this week on Macmillan Dictionary. The word, formed from a combination of adjective/prefix pseudo (meaning ‘not genuine’) and suffix –cide (denoting the act of killing), describes the act of faking your own death because you want to start a new life. The concept is not terribly new. You’ll recall the famous example...

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Language and words in the news – 30 October, 2009

Jonathan Cole — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:03:51 +0000

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. Global English USA: Top cop apologizes [...]

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King’s English

Laine Cole — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:00:38 +0000

I’ve had an enlightening week reading Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I’ve avoided his books – and most of the resulting movies – all my reading/watching life, as … well, I’m hellishly easy to scare (seriously, Ghostbusters scared me senseless). But his approach and his advice is straight-up and liberating rather [...]

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Language and words in the news – 23 October, 2009

Jonathan Cole — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:37:12 +0000

This post contains a weekly selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English and language change. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. Global English Cel•e•brate: the case for [...]

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