It says a lot about our tendency to procrastinate that the word presently in the late 14th century meant ‘immediately, in the present time’, but by the 1560s it had relaxed into ‘soon’. In fact, soon also used to mean ‘at once’ and eventually came to mean ‘within a short time’. Anon is one [more…]
I sometimes think of the English language as a living, breathing creature that devours new words and spits out the obsolete ones. New words are added all the time, and existing words are given new meanings, which is what makes the English language so wonderfully diverse.
The word ‘gifted’ means ‘blessed’ or ‘talented’. When [more…]
When did drama first start? It’s always been a part of our lives, not just our own personal dramas but also those in literature, stage and film.
We don’t know exactly when humans first started re-enacting life stories, but the ancient Greeks were very keen on performing in public, telling stories. The Greek audience loved [more…]
Once our wonderful crossword and puzzle magazines are shipped to your door, or placed on store shelves, it’s not long before our puzzlers write in to share their thoughts and questions. Here at Lovatts, we encourage your feedback, and we love talking about our clues. I thought I’d share my findings inspired by a [more…]
There is an old legend that eagles are the only animals that can look into the sun. According to the translation of St Augustine, “The sun invigorates the eyes of eagles, but injures our own.”
It is certainly true that eagles have very special eyesight, estimated to be 4 to 8 times stronger than a [more…]
One of the great pleasures of life, I feel, is receiving a letter in the post. I mean a friendly letter of course, not a bill, a speeding fine or a sales catalogue. When I first arrived in Australia, many moons ago, phone calls were only used in case of emergencies and the post [more…]
The first Mother’s Day church service was held in 1908 and it became an American national holiday in 1914. It’s natural to assume a Father’s Day soon followed, ensuring that both parents received the recognition they rightfully deserved. However, this was not the case. Father’s Day was first celebrated in 1910, and it was [more…]
Our linguistic history is closely tied up with the major Romance languages of Europe, especially France, Italy and Spain. Spanish words figure largely in our English vocabulary, due to the historic ties between Spain and Britain over many centuries.
Take the culinary world, for example. We think of tapas and sangria as typical Spanish fare, [more…]
When we come across a word we don’t know, we can often work out what it means by knowing what the prefix or suffix means.
We know, without having to think about it, that the prefix un turns a positive into a negative. Happy becomes unhappy, done becomes undone. Dis means ‘the opposite of’ or [more…]
