Making words work better
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Below is the link to my post. !fun Have Today, 31st January, is National Backwards Day, where People are encouraged to do all sorts of…
Continue reading → National Backwards Day – Collins Dictionary Language Blog
Nuts feature in two types of metaphor The first is a euphemism for, ahem, testicles. Clearly perceived similarity of shape is the root or the ‘grounds’ of the metaphor.
The popular Australian brand of edible nuts ‘Nobby’s Nuts’ exploits potential double-entendres to the full, particularly in an ad it used a while back: ‘Nibble Nobby’s Nuts.’
The portmanteau we’re talking about now is Twixmas. It is presumably a blend of betwixt with Christmas (whereas it could, say, have been Tweenmas, from between, but then it wouldn’t rhyme, and would be even more opaque.)
Antarctica Day on 1st December celebrates the signing in 1959 of the Antarctic Treaty, but where did the word ‘Antarctica’ originate from? Source: Antarctica Day…
Continue reading → Antarctica Day – Collins Dictionary Language Blog
Nursery rhymes are deceptively simple but they teach us all about rhyme, word order, and vocabulary whether real or nonsense! Source: Pop Goes the Weasel:…
As reading the examples will quickly show, most refer to women, but four examples refer to flowers or flower heads, and six more refer to plants or gardens, three of which are shown: blowsy British charm, blowsy clump of feather reed grass, blowsy double anemones.
Jeremy Butterfield Editorial 