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- 10 Curse Words You Don’t Know
The word “swear” has two meanings, or at least it seems that way. Swearing, as in swearing an oath, means making a solemn promise, whereas swearing also means using foul language. The two meanings are closely related since the swearing of an oath traditionally involved swearing on the Bible or in God’s name. So when,....
- 10 Nonsense Words You Don’t Know
“A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men.” So says Willy Wonka in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Imho nonsense should be relished by everyone. There’s something magical about it. But I’m horribly biased, because I was fed nonsense from an early age by my mother. She had a perfect....
- 10 Insulting Words You Don’t Know
“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” That’s what we used to chant as kids when we got into name calling contests in the school yard. Of course, it’s untrue and it’s disingenuous. It implies that the name callers are pursuing a stupid strategy when, in truth, the right insult....
- 10 Very Long Words You Don’t Know
In choosing to provide a list of long words that you (or at least most of you) don’t know, I decided to eschew two very specific words: antidisestablishmentarianism and floccinaucinihilipilification – my presumption being that you will have run into both of them. When I was at school, I was unreliably informed that the longest....
- 10 French Swear Words You Don’t Know
Excuse my French. I mean this sincerely rather than euphemistically, because I’m about to hitchhike my way through a landscape of French swear words, that you’re unlikely to know – unless you are French or familiar with French as she is spoken. ....
- 10 IT Words You Don’t Know
In the lists of words that I’ve blogged so far I’ve leaned quite heavily on archaic words that have fallen out of usage. Many such words refer to specialisms or specialist areas of activity that died out long ago. If we want to see how such words come into existence – eventually to fade from....
- The Jabberwocky Nonsense Words Explained: All Of Them
The nonsense poem that goes by the name of Jabberwocky was published in 1871 as part of Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll’s second Alice book, which is usually referred to as Alice Through The Looking Glass. You have probably encountered Jabberwocky at some point in your life, whether you read....
- 10 Words You Didn’t Know Were Arabic Words
As the Roman Empire died, it came apart in the middle, splitting itself and also the Christian Church between East and West. The border of the two halves ran between what are now Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. Roman Emperor Constantine was the unwitting architect of this division because he founded Constantinople as an alternative capital....
- 10 Funny (Peculiar) English Words You Don’t Know
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs, we’re off in search of funny – meaning odd – English words. I’ll explain the beginning of that sentence in a while, but first let’s all celebrate the awfulness of the English language. English is an unapologetic delinquent and criminally inspired language, most likely spawned by the....
- 10 Words You Don’t Know
Some people who find this web page will surely know one or two of these words, because that’s just the way of the world. But most of you will not know these words and, to be honest, you will not find them hard to forget. Here’s the list of ten, randomly selected from a much....