Hello – BIG August 2013
There may have been a time when all the lands of the world were joined. Way back in 1596, Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius suggested that the Americas were “torn away from Europe and Africa ... by earthquakes and floods".
Hello – BIG July 2013
Words, just like us, come from families. Some are related to each other and have ancient ancestors.
It’s not always an obvious relationship. For instance, the words free and friend both came from an Indo-European root meaning ‘to love’.
You wouldn’t think there was a connection between biscuit, precocious and concoct but they all come from [more…]
Hello – BIG June 2013
The English language is like a high-speed moving train, with new words jumping on and old words dropping off constantly.
Most of the words we use in the English language today are of foreign origin. Many basic words came from Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian and English still derives much of its vocabulary from Latin and Greek, [more…]
Hello – BIG May 2013
How much difference does one little letter make in a word? Take the T in egotism for example. You might think that there’s little difference between egoism and egotism, and they do have their similarities. But there is a major difference...
Hello – BIG April 2013
When we hear something we don’t understand, we say “It’s all Greek to me”. This might be closer to the truth than we realise, because about a quarter of the words we use originally came from ancient Greek, either directly or through Latin and French.
‘Brotherly love’ in Greek is philia, [more…]
My Cup Of Tea
This means something one finds pleasing though it’s more often heard in the negative – but that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Tea is, or most certainly was, the national beverage of Britain and it gave rise to lots of idiomatic phrases such as ‘storm in a teacup’ and ‘not for all the tea in [more…]
The Lion’s Share
To take the lion’s share is to take the larger part or even the majority of what is to be apportioned out.
There are many tales from ancient times that tell of a group of animals going hunting and the lion using his strength and position as king to claim all the spoils.
The story is [more…]
Crocodile Tears
Crocodile tears are insincere displays of emotion such as feigning sympathy at your opponents’ team losing a match.
In ancient times it was reported and believed that crocodiles put on sad looks and sighed sorrowfully to lure their prey. Moments later they would devour the naïve innocent party and weep (with delight?) while munching on [more…]
