linguistics

You’re Unfriended, Amigo!

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

Or perhaps enemigo would be more appropriate!

I’m not an expert in Spanish by any means. But recently I found myself watching a brief clip from Toy Story 3 (I can’t for the life of me remember the context, but it was a YouTube video of some sorts). The clip was from when Buzz Lightyear’s accidentally had his voice (and personality: I have seen Toy Story 3) changed to Spanish. From this very brief clip, and memory of watching the film, I recognised that he was saying Are you a friend or an enemy!? Which was very interesting. Continue reading →

Let the Negotations Begin

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

I discovered an interesting bit of etymology recently. I was reading SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. In a chapter about work and business, she mentioned a Latin word  – otium. Continue reading →

Ph or F?

Niall O'Donnell 17 Comments

Have you ever wondered why both F and Ph can have the same sound in English?

Phone, philosophy, Philadelphia: force, far, fair etc. Continue reading →

2020 Vision

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

Happy New Year!

The time does fly, doesn’t it? Continue reading →

Crummy!

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

I was reading Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles the other day when at one point, a character described the eponymous heroine as “a crummy girl.” As with many of Hardy’s novels, which are full of 19th-century English West-Country dialect, there was an explanatory note. I was going to pass over it, as there are many such notes, and I don’t want to interrupt my reading flow by stopping for each one. Plus, the meaning was pretty clear from the context: it obviously meant attractive.

Continue reading →

Back for Good

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

I used the expression for good recently, in the standard way, meaning forever. And then I thought: why do we use for good in this way? Continue reading →

Still Life

Niall O'Donnell 2 Comments

I can’t say I’ve ever spent a lot of time thinking about the term still life. I do know that at least once I had thought about the incongruity of the term though. Continue reading →