Last week Jacob Rees-Mogg Esq., M.P. issued a style guide to his staff, proscribing certain words and phrases while enjoining a mixed bag of…
Continue reading → Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ‘style guide’. Some dispassionate thoughts.
(1 & 2 of 30 commonly confused words) A revised & shortened version If person A makes a coruscating attack on person or thing B, what…
Continue reading → A coruscating attack? Or an excoriating attack? Who’s right?
Of camera-snappers, clams, pasta and gaffes The other day I was flummoxed by the apostrophe for the possessive of paparazzi (plural): paparazzi’s or paparazzis’? Which…
Continue reading → Paparazzo, paparazzi and paparazzis. Not to mention spaghetto.
SUMMARY 21 per cent of a Twitter poll preferred ?with regards to over with regard to. In a Twitter corpus the regards versions happen more…
“Give my regards to Jean when you see her” I said to a friend the other day. (If I were considerably younger, I would no…
If you enjoy this blog, and find it useful, there’s an easy way for you to find out when I blog again. Just sign…
Continue reading → Spanish words borrowed by English: alligators and cockroaches
Five-minute read, and worth every second of your very valuable time. (Which is rather less time than it took me to write it.) The other…
Continue reading → A silk purse out of a sow’s ear: meaning and origin
