It’s a pretty common cliché by now that Greenland is actually very icy, and Iceland is… well, not green all the time, but certainly is some of the time in some areas, and definitely isn’t always icy!
So why the apparently contradictory names then? Continue reading
Poor Wales, they put up a great fight, but a win for Portugal was a fair result, and at least they can be quite proud of getting to the semi-finals at all. Hearing the word Wales in the last few days made me think of the many childhood jokes based on the fact that Wales and Whales sound so similar.
You might have noticed that I’ve just said that Wales and whales sound similar. Not the same: similar. Hang on, you might be thinking: they sound identical! What’s he talking about!?
And you’re right: they are identical. But I’m also right: they’re similar. Isn’t English wonderful!? Continue reading
To celebrate the historic occasion of Wales playing tonight in the semi-finals of their first ever European Championship, I want to write something short about English words of Welsh origin. Short, because there aren’t that many! I think this is largely because Welsh both looks and sounds so different from English that it’s different for Welsh words to enter the English language. But there are a few, such as… Continue reading
I realised today that I often write about how words can become used regularly by being associated with a certain sense of prestige, and that I’m quite likely to use the word posh in this regard. I then became curious to research the origins of the word: partly because it’s an interesting word, loaded with meaning, and one that doesn’t quite sound like an English word.
My other reason is because I’m already aware of one story about its origin which sounds too good to be true, and I wanted to see if that really is the case. Continue reading
—Is there a doctor on the plane!?
—Yes, I’m a doctor!
—Oh thank God, come quick, I think he’s having a heart attack!
—Oh, I’m not a medical doctor. I have a PhD in medieval French literature. It’s quite interesting actually. You see…
Why do we use doctor in two such different ways in English? What’s the link between a physician and a top-level academic? Looking at the origin of the word, it comes from the Medieval Latin doctor meaning religious adviser, teacher, or scholar. You can still observe that meaning in modern words such as doctrine or indoctrination. Towards the end of the 16th century, doctor began to replace the much older word leech, meaning physician. Continue reading
I’ve written before about how we use words and phrases associated with temperature, and specifically heat, in the English language. Today, I was struck by the word cool, and how it seems to contradict, yet also agree with, some of these words and phrases.
If we consider that we often associate heat with excessive passion and anger, coolness makes sense, describing someone who doesn’t get angry or overly excited easily; who keeps calm and doesn’t get stressed or worried.
And yet, it’s a short step from there to being cold: unfriendly, uncaring and unkind. Things get very confusing when we start talking about blood. Being hot-blooded means getting angry and excited very quickly, and in contrast, a cold-blooded individual is cruel, emotionless, pitiless. They’re at opposite ends of a spectrum, and equally undesirable because of it. One can be harmful to themselves and others by being too quick to anger. On the other hand, one can be so devoid of feeling for other people that they’re willing to do any number of harmful things to them, or fail to intervene, simply because the plight of others stirs no emotion in them. Continue reading
Imagine the situation:
An English-School classroom, with a Beginner or Elementary class. The teacher has put a picture of someone with a glass of water to their lips.
—What is she doing?
—She is… drinking the water.
—Yes, very good! Now, next…
The teacher now displays an image of someone sitting down to a meal.
—Ok, now can somebody tell me what this person is doing?
—Eating.
—Yes, very good! So, we eat…
—food.
—Yes, and we drink…
—uh, drinks.
—Yes, excellent!
That might seem pretty logical. To eat and To drink are two very common, basic verbs, and students need to understand exactly what they mean and how to use them, don’t they? Well, yes, but how do we really use these two verbs? How often do we really use them? Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 