word history

What do a Chauffeur and Dracula Have in Common?

Niall O'Donnell 8 Comments

Stokers, that’s what. Let me explain…

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Duck!

Niall O'Donnell 13 Comments

A duck is an aquatic animal, found in freshwater environments around the world.

I probably haven’t blown your mind by telling you that. Nor, I’m sure, will I do so by telling you that to duck is a verb meaning to quickly dip your head. I may, however, surprise you slightly by telling you which word came first.

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Bring Back Nostalgia

Niall O'Donnell 16 Comments

This is kind of a companion piece to yesterday’s post, being about obscure words none of us really use.

I’ve seen a lot of lists on social media and various websites about obscure words people need to be made aware of, or obsolete words which need to be brought back. For example, here’s a story I came across this morning on the BBC Culture website: Twenty-six words we don’t want to lose.

Here’s the full list of words from the article; see if you guess what one of my issues with the list might be:

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How Many in a Couple?

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Two.

Or more.

It depends really.

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Racking my Brain

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

Writing yesterday’s post, I came to a point where I wanted to use the phrase racking their brain. A few words before I got to the point where I had to type it though, I paused: was it wracking their brain?

I’ve never been sure how to spell it, and it’s not something I often have to write, so I never had to look it up. At least until yesterday anyway, so to satisfy all our curiosity, here’s the answer…

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Brilliant!

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

Shine bright like a diamond,

– Rihanna, 2012.

How do you feel about the adjective brilliant? It seems to be a bit divisive. Like the word awesome, there are those who feel that it’s cheapened by being used as a general adjective of quality, to indicate that something is very good.

I understand that point of view, and I’ve argued previously that sometimes a strong adjective is just too strong for the situation, and a nice simple adjective often works well. That being said, the sheer positivity of words like awesome and brilliant can be infectious.

And while brilliant is now firmly established as a synonym for great, this is actually a fairly recent development.

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What do the Birdman of Alcatraz and Golf Have in Common?

Niall O'Donnell 16 Comments

Albatrosses!

See, I told you I’d have more amazing albatross facts for you. 

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