Think you should know...

Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt"

Useful phrases for Monday morning

These phrases come from the OMNIGLOT website (click in the title to go straight there) and are mainly from phrasebooks and language courses. 

DANISH 

Jeg er allergisk over for muskatnød 

I am allergic to nutmeg. 

ESPERANTO

Kiom kostas tiu hundeto en la fenestro?
How much is that doggie in the window?

Haiwaiian

Ha'aheo no paha 'oe i kena papale kupalaka, pehea la.
You must be very proud of your large hat.

OK, so the creative writing exercise is to use these in dialogue and make it sound natural...

 

What you learn from Daytime TV (1)

It's all about the Benjamin means it's all about the money. (Benjamin Franklin appears on the $100 bill).

This translation of hip street talk was on Pointless quiz yesterday afternoon. Honest, I don't usually indulge (I am usually teaching or traveling or writing) but it was a small celebration....just sent 201 page manuscript to agent, so a small hiatus seem called for...

Another word for the person you're with...

...discussions centred on the topic at celebrations to mark a soon-to-be-awarded doctorate in poetry and with a gathering of wordsmiths you'd think we'd be able to come up with something, if not original than at least strange and memorable, but we came a bit unstuck. 
There was a general consensus against partner and in favour of the Anglo Saxon simplicity of: this is my man; this is my woman. But it needs a certain aplomb to carry it off and it's not suitable for all occasions.  
I'm fond of the Irish equivalents: Himself and Herself (as in the phrase Himself says he's watching the football tonight but I've hidden the remote.) I can't think of anything to beat John Mortimer's she who must be obeyed (taken in turn from Rider Haggard's She) but there must be a phrase more redolent of the times in which we live...even if it is only suitable for the pages of fiction and can't be used when  making introductions at the office Christmas party. Any suggestions?

Peas and words and the stories they tell...

If you love words - and if you are a writer it's a marriage not an affair -  I recommend Michael Quinion's website http://www.worldwidewords.org 

Subscribe to his free weekly newsletter and every Saturday you will be entertained, educated and intrigued. This week I not only learned a new word but I gained an insight into another time and another way of life.

Ever heard of PEA-WET?

It's a term used in Lancashire, specifically in the Wigan area, for the green liquid that runs off tinned mushy peas. (I hate peas. Always have. always will. I know that like eggs they are nature's convenience food - and like eggs they even come in their own wrapping - but I will never be converted. Mushy peas are the work of the devil and if you don't know what they are guard your ignorance. It's a place you don't want to go...). Sorry I digress...PEA-WET is a poor man's gravy poured over a portion of chips (or, as I would say, ruining a portion of chips). PEA-WET AND
SCRAPS was a treat for poor children, the scraps being fragments of batter from the fish fryer.
You could write a story around that one detail couldn't you? The smell of the chip shop on a Saturday night, the street light reflected in the glass and chrome...crunching into the golden batter...the heat of the newspaper bundle and the cold of the night...

New words - the ones we need and the ones that happen

Like all writers, I'm interested in words. We want to use language with precision and, at the same time, to have fun with the rich texture of vocabulary but sometimes you just have to make it up...The American comedian Rich Hall has come up with the term sniglet for any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should. Here's a couple of examples:

Caffidget (ka fij' it) - v. To break up a polystyrene cup of coffee into several hundred pieces after draining it.

Genderplex - n. The predicament of a person in a restaurant who is unable to determine his or her designated restroom e.g. turtles and tortoises.  (Had this problem in Seville meat and vegetable market when I mistook the 'S' of signor for a 'G' and couldn't find an appropriate phrase in my guide book.) 

I'm indebted to Michael Quinion and his wonderful website (and email newsletter) - Worldwide Words - for this very recent history about the accidental evolution of a new word. Click on the title of this post to go to his website.

YAKA-WOW  In what seems to have been a mixture of rueful admission of error and pleasure in accidental accomplishment, the Times noted on 23 April that a transcription error in an interview on 15 April with the neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield has gone viral. She was concerned that excessive playing of computer games or using social networks such as Twitter would stop the malleable brains of young people developing as they should: "It's not going to destroy the planet but is it going to be a planet worth living in if you have a load of breezy people who go around saying yaka-wow. Is that the society we want?" Within 24 hours, it is said, Google had 75,000 results for "yaka-wow". It has inspired a Twitter stream, a page on Facebook, mugs and T-shirts; it has become a personal philosophy: "I think, therefore I yaka-wow"; and it has led to the creation of the virtual First Church of the Yaka-Wow. What Baroness Greenfield really said was "yuck and wow", a derogatory comment about the limited emotional range and vocabulary of Twitter users. Considered linguistically and culturally, it's a fascinating example of the way electronic communications can today create and transmit a new word.

Words of 2009

 From Susie Dent at Oxford University Press ( and Channel 4 Countdown fame) words of 2009 

• Unfriend (sounds more like 1984 Newspeak)
• Staycation (or No, we're not going away this year. Just days out. Probably.)
• Zombie bank (a bank that owes more than it owns but can still operate because of government support)
• Jeggings (tight leggings made from a material that looks like denim -- we need a word for that?? It's not a great look...Ok, it is on some people. I'm just not running out to get myself a pair)

Frozen words

Antisthenes - the Greek philosopher - is supposed to have believed in a faraway land where the cold was so intense that words froze as soon as they were spoken. They could only be heard when the thaw came. It meant that anything uttered in winter became audible the following summer.  (Did six month old never-meant-to-be-spoken-aloud mumbles sound like a swarm of bees on warm evenings….?)

It was cold today but not that cold.