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English

Porcelain may be even ruder than was thought

When Marco Polo brought the first porcelain to Europe, just how did it get its name? From Roman nursery slang, perhaps.

May 2, 2017 General, Language, Life

Does a vehicle career or careen?

Did one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ fantasy novels change the meaning of the word ‘careen’?

January 23, 2017 General, Language, Life

I’m learning Google: no logic in translation

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Ask Google Translate to turn the Hungarian for “I am learning Hungarian” into French, and it tells you that I am learning English, in French.

April 11, 2016 General, Language, Life, Macs, Technology

In a Word: Spoof, hoax, and April pranks

Spoof was originally a card game. But why April fools? A quick trip around trickery.

April 1, 2016 General, Language, Life, Painting

Book Review: Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation, David Crystal

With three whole chapters about the comma alone, anyone interested in English should read this book.

October 17, 2015 General, Language, Life

Better than any dictionary: the Historical Thesaurus of the OED

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Like so many of David Crystal’s books, “Words in Time and Place” is seriously addictive, and essential for anyone with the slightest interest in the English language.

June 23, 2015 General, Language

Terminology WordNet dictionary for OS X

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Greg Pierce at Agile Tortoise has now released a free OS X dictionary based on WordNet, which effectively brings Terminology to your Mac.

June 12, 2015 General, Language, Macs, Technology

Book review: The Disappearing Dictionary, David Crystal

This is a book to dip into only if you have good self-control: one word will lead to another, until you have visited each of the 500 or so.

May 16, 2015 General, Language, Life

Words can ever hurt me

Words have recently caused many casualties. Whether they were in emails exchanged with the Murdochs and read to […]

April 26, 2015 General, Language, Life, Macs, Technology

In a word – panorama, which has outlived its original invention

A panorama is an image, usually broad in its extent, of landscape, and has seen extensive figurative application. What is remarkable is that it did not exist until 1789, and still thrives today.

April 25, 2015 General, Language, Painting

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