English

International Women’s Day

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

Happy International Women’s Day! I did think a little about whether it was appropriate to wish one a happy International Women’s Day, seeing as there’s still a lot of work being done around the world to secure women’s rights in a variety of areas. But I think today should be a day for celebration, as well as reflection and protest, so happy International Women’s Day! In honour of the day, I’ve decided to take a look at the word woman, and a little bit at how we gender language. And I hope you won’t accuse of mansplaining: I’m just doing what I usually do, just with a feminine focus today (and I’m observing A Day Without a Woman, so who else could I get to do it!). Continue reading →

Basil!

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

Basil isn’t a name you hear much nowadays. Not in English at least, though it’s a little more popular in its French form. Perhaps it would be more popular if people knew what it meant. Continue reading →

The Marque of the Beast

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

Are you brand conscious?

Do you wear lots of designer brands?

What’s your favourite brand of shampoo?

Obviously, brand is a very common word we use without much thought. But as a glimpse at the image above will remind you, it also has a second meaning most of us know about, but don’t use too often: Continue reading →

Double Dutch – the History of English

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

If you have a spare four hours or so, have a look at all parts of this ITV documentary The Adventure of English. Or the first part of it anyway: Continue reading →

Carnival

Niall O'Donnell 10 Comments

Carnival! Continue reading →

Film or Movie?

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

Do you want to catch a movie? Or maybe you’d prefer to watch a nice film? Of course they’re the same thing, objectively, but they’re not really the same, are they?

Strictly both movie and film are synonyms, but in reality, the word film has a much greater sense of sophistication than movie. Why is that? Continue reading →

Trump’s Triumph?

Niall O'Donnell 15 Comments

So Donald Trump is being hailed in some quarters as “presidential” for his address to Congress last night. And fair enough. Though there didn’t seem to be much substance to it, his tone was noticeably more measured than any of his public appearances to date. Not that that was particularly hard mind you. When you think about it though, describing his as presidential seems like something of a back-handed compliment, and at best damning him with faint praise. The word presidential means like or related to a president, so isn’t that the least that would be expected of him? Surely he should be presidential by default? But I understand people being pleasantly surprised. Regardless of whether you agree with his policies or not, it’s hard to deny that he’s had a very direct, blunt style, in contrast to his predecessors. Continue reading →