word origins

How Many in a Couple?

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Two.

Or more.

It depends really.

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Le Grand Chelem

Niall O'Donnell 3 Comments

Watching Roland Garros this summer, I learned a new French term: Le Grand Chelem. Not that it was very new, as it’s not different from an English term I was already aware of.

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H is for Honesty

Niall O'Donnell 20 Comments

While listening to the radio today, the DJ introduced the song “Honesty,” by Billy Joel. Only, being a French speaker, he pronounced the H as we do in words like house and happy. This might seem odd though, because the letter H is always silent in French.

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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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Armistice Day

Niall O'Donnell 15 Comments

Today is 11 November, Armistice Day, on which we commemorate the end of the First World War. Or, World War I. That’s how we refer to the conflict now, but it’s actually had surprisingly many names.

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