I often write about false friends and various other confusing words for learners of English. But one of my recent French lessons reminded me of a word that often confuses Anglophone learners of French: magasin. Continue reading
Magazine
word history
Goosebumps!
Did you know there’s a scientific, very Latin-sounding term for the experience of getting goosebumps? Continue reading
Alright, Alright, Alright!
I wrote before about alright and all right. But it occurred to me today that we use alright (or all right: for simplicity’s sake I’m just going to use alright from now on) as an exclamation, meaning great! Which is a little odd when you think about it. Continue reading
Big Issue!
Do you want to keep track of some the most important issues in the world today? Maybe you could pick up an issue of the magazine The Big Issue to read about them.
Issue. Continue reading
In Concert
I was thinking about the word concert recently. A very common word, but it struck me that, like so many others, we use it in different ways without really noticing. Continue reading
Horoscope
I saw this word today, and thought straight away that its origins were pretty clear.
-scope is clearly related to watching or looking (periscope, telescope etc.) And horo- must be related to time (hour). And that’s the case.
It comes from the Greek horoskopos, made up of hora (hour, season, period of time) and skopos (watcher, that which is watched). There was one thing I was slightly wrong about though. Continue reading
Whoa!
I thought about the word wow a little while ago. I’m not sure why it came to me: I don’t recall being particularly surprised by anything today. Continue reading
English-Language Thoughts 