You know Jenga, the game where you build a tower out of wooden blocks and then try to remove one block at a time until the whole tower collapses. The word means “build” in Swahili, as I learnt last year from this article featuring the inventor Leslie Scott and Alan Hassenfeld from Hasbro. I assumed… Continue reading Word of the week: Jenga
“Nice wheels”: that’s a synecdoche, the one I use most. It’s when you use part of an object to describe the whole. I use “Nice wheels” to mean “Nice car”, or even “Nice bicycle” or “Nice scooter” when talking to children about their vehicles. You’re not commenting on the wheels themselves: you’re complimenting the whole… Continue reading Word of the week: synecdoche
I thought I knew what an adverb was: anything ending in “-ly”, which describes a verb (happily, sadly, strangely). But there’s so much more to it, as I learnt from my 9 year old daughter’s homework at the weekend. She had to include “Time Adverbials” in her piece about how the school canteen works. Thank… Continue reading Word of the Week: adverb
I first came across this word last year in an Oliver Burkeman article, “How to find time to read”, well worth reading. Like chairdrobe it pretty much explains itself: a list expanded into an article. I’m surprised that it’s taken me until my 40th post to this site to link to one of his articles.… Continue reading Word of the week: listicle
You remember Goldilocks. She turned up at the Three Bears’ house, ate their porridge, sat in their chairs, tried to sleep in each of their beds. I like the way that Goldilocks has now become an adjective. We live on a Goldilocks planet. Earth is a Goldilocks planet. Scientists are looking for other Goldilocks planets… Continue reading Word of the week: Goldilocks
I love this word, it hardly needs a description: a chair serving the function of a wardrobe. I’m not sure whether I made it up, and found that other people had made it up at the same time, or read it and then forgot about it. The first time I remember reading it was in… Continue reading Word of the week: chairdrobe
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
“Conflicted” was really my Word of the Year for 2012, the year that “The Iron Lady” was released in the UK. It features Meryl Streep’s Oscar-wining performance as Margaret Thatcher. I am a fan of Meryl Streep but was resolutely not a fan of Margaret Thatcher. I had to see the movie, like every other… Continue reading Word of the week: conflicted
The Compartments 