Vocabulary
Venomous vs poisonous
These are two of South Africa’s most venomous snakes, a female boomslang to the left (seen because the female boomslang is brown and the male is green) and a black mamba to the right. It is almost unknown to see… Read More ›
Coronavirus vocabulary
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has brought many new words and phrases into everyday use. Some existed before but are used more now. Others have entered our vocabulary over the past couple of months COVID-19 corona coronavirus PPE… Read More ›
New words
I am sure that self-isolation and social distancing will enter the dictionary this year, as will many slang terms related to COVID-19. In addition, ‘old’ words like ‘furlough’ have been used more and more this year. ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD… Read More ›
Did you know?
fear of being without your phone is called nomophobia if you hear your phone ringing even when it isn’t, it is called ringxiety, fauxcellarm, phantom vibration syndrome, phantom ringing syndrome, phonetom preferring to interact by phone rather than face to face is called phubbing
The difference between ability, capability and capacity
For this one, I am going to use an excellent explanation from grammarist.com ability vs. capability vs. capacity Ability, capability, and capacity are synonyms in many of their uses. All are frequently used to refer to one’s power to perform an action. For… Read More ›
One of my favourite smells
My others are just-mowed grass sheets after having dried in the sun freshly-brewed or ground coffee freshly baked bread plastic dolls sun tan lotion Vicks Vaporub Johnson’s baby powder
The rise and fall of slang over 900 years
I read an interesting article recently about the rise and fall of slang words throughout history. There is even an interactive chart where you can see words in different areas that have come and gone over time. The English language… Read More ›
Origin of the word ‘selfie’
It seems almost certain the selfie originated in Australia with a young drunk first using the word to describe a self-portrait photograph more than a decade ago. Oxford Dictionaries revealed this week the earliest known usage is from a 2002… Read More ›
