The English language is full of quirky idioms and ways of speaking, but surely one of the quirkiest is Cockney rhyming slang. Although most historians agree Cockney rhyming slang originated in London’s east end in the mid-nineteenth century, there are various theories as to how this particularly British linguistic » Read More
Sniglets Have you ever heard of Sniglets? The person who coined this term, actor/comedian Rich Hall, described them as “any word that doesn’t appear in the dictionary, but should”. Sniglets featured as part of the satirical comedy show Not Necessarily the News based on the BBC series Not the » Read More
I used the term ‘nought’ the other day in conversation with a non-native English speaker, and the person looked at me nonplussed*. This got me thinking about how many ways there are to express the idea of zero, or nothing, in English, which prompted this blog post. Zero, zilch, » Read More
A portmanteau word is made of two words combined together – the term itself originates from the French word portemanteau, combining porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak). There are countless examples in the English language you’ll already know: Brunch = breakfast + lunch Motel = motor + hotel Telethon = telephone » Read More