While reading a recipe recently, I paused for a moment and thought about the cooking term seasoning. How is it, I wondered that to season can be a verb, and how is it related to the four seasons of the year? Continue reading
A Word for All Seasons
language teaching
Assassination or Murder?
If I asked you to define the word assassination, you probably wouldn’t have much difficulty. You’d probably say something like the killing of a famous or important person.
And that would be perfectly fine.
But recently I wondered if there’s a specific distinction between murder and assassination. Continue reading
Gingerly
I was reading this afternoon, when the word gingerly made me pause. It’s a word I’ve come across countless times before, but today was the first time I asked myself – What does it have to do with ginger? Continue reading
What’s the Difference Between a Language and a Dialect?
You might have noticed yesterday that when I mentioned the word bairn, I referred to its use in both Scots and Scottish English. And you might have asked yourself: what’s the difference?
I’m not an expert, and not going to go into all the details, but suffice it to say that they’re quite distinct. Continue reading
Vikings
I was reading about a Viking hoard discovered in York in England this morning, and learned something quite interesting. Continue reading
Come and See. Or Watch…
A common question that comes up in the English-language classroom is, what’s the difference between seeing and looking? And sometimes watching is thrown in there for good measure.
Explaining them is pretty straightforward. Continue reading
Infectious Laughter
I might not write that expression many more times in my life. I might actually have never written it before to be honest, but I’m probably less likely to use it from now on.
Just as I might not mention that yawning, for example, is contagious very often. And that would of course be due to the current coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 