Humpty Dumpty or Hobson-Jobson? Language on loan

"Caesar adsum jam forte / Brutus aderat." - Ronald Searle (Down With Skool, 1953) Languages are linked. Much like the nations and peoples who speak them, their evolutionary journeys and present states represent travels across continents, cultural exchanges, even barters and squabbles for dominance. Common etymologies and shared linguistic ancestors immediately spring to mind (e.g. the … Continue reading Humpty Dumpty or Hobson-Jobson? Language on loan →

Sounds gay, I’m in

"My business and your law practice ought to make a pretty gay team, Dave." - Mark Twain (Century Magazine, Feb. 1894) "I remember" the pearl-clutchers are wont to say, "when being gay just meant being happy." There's a certain defiance to this statement, often leaving me to infer the continuation as "...and people like you didn't exist". … Continue reading Sounds gay, I’m in →

All together now: A love-letter to zeugma

"A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink dressing-gown and a frown." - JK Rowling (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997) Zeugma is one of my favourite figures of speech. What I like most is its accessibility and its ubiquity: much like that Zara dress, you see it once and then … Continue reading All together now: A love-letter to zeugma →

Janus words: Words which are their own opposites

"That two-faced son of a jackal!" - Aladdin (Aladdin, 1992) What a tricksy little beastie the English language can be. Not satisfied by countless rules with just as many exceptions and a half-arsed commitment to cases and words which sound the same but really look like they shouldn't, we also do a cracking line in … Continue reading Janus words: Words which are their own opposites →

To see you, nice

"The Biggs would call her a nice woman" - Jane Austen (Letters, 1799) Nice is one of those adjectives which, whilst not strictly an insult, I'd be fairly narked to have ascribed to me. It sits somewhere between "meaning well" and having one's "heart in the right place"; to be "nice" strikes me as as … Continue reading To see you, nice →