Happy New Year, everyone! Guess what? Christmas is over and we don’t have to sing about it anymore. Not that any of the usual suspects mention the word. Instead, there is the decking of halls, jingling of bells and converging of ye faithful. Activities that could happen at any time of the year—and are less [...]
Bit: binary digit. This is the bit we hear when people speak of 64-bit processors or 256-bit encryption. Find out what this actually means.
Some words just make me mad. Generally, it's not their fault. But not 'signage'—it needs to be punished.
Definition: Orange lights at all four corners of a car intended to be used—by blinking the relevant side—to notify other drivers of your intention to turn or change lanes. Some people consider the use of these optional.
People might speak of being passionate about art, music, or cooking… or ‘delivering cost-effective digital solutions that maximise customer benefit…’
At one point, I’ve read, this was the most offensive word in English.
India has a lot of languages—according to a 2001 census, there were 29 different languages in India that had at least a million native speakers each. The official language is Hindi—but English in India is a rich variant in its own right.
You've probably heard some nonsense about it relating to ships and cannonballs and some kind of cannonball holder called a 'monkey'...
How do we explain the general homogeneity of the Australian accent (almost no variation in a country 30 times the size of Britain)? What is Australian English, anyway? (Is it more than just the accent?) This post explores these questions, and influences on Australian English—from colonial times to present day.
English is full of relics, throwbacks to old words or expressions, that often only remain in a single contemporary term or expression. Like 'teller' in 'bank teller'. Tell is an old word meaning 'to count', and we don't see it anywhere else...
