ENJOY ANAGRAMS?
Animosity = Is no amity
Mother-
Snooze alarms = Alas! No more Z's
The detectives = Detect thieves
There are more on:
Dormitory = Dirty room
New York Times = Monkeys write
Statue of Liberty = Built to stay free
The eyes = They see
A WORD OF WARNING ON DICTIONARIES...
...especially if you are learning English as a foreign language.
Look up the word “gimlet” in any version of the Oxford dictionary, then compare
the definition with that from, say, Collins English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
-
They don’t match! The original meaning of “gimlet” as a carpenters’ tool for making small holes in wood has been lost in the Collins dictionary.
If you need a very good command of English buy an Oxford version as well.
Otherwise the Collins is great. Rather than the short or synonymic definition it gives an explanation and an example of the word in context. Even the Oxford dictionaries sometimes disagree on the definition or etymology of a word!
Going back to the Collins Advanced Learners dictionary:
It happened to be handy when I wanted to look up “flaccid”. The definition reads:
“You use flaccid to describe a part of some ones body when it is unpleasantly soft and not hard or firm.”
Yeah, at my age that seems very appropriate!
BOOKS I HAVE ENJOYED
(Or have used and can recommend.)
A is for Ox:
a short history of the alphabet.
Lyn Davies/Ottakar’s
ISBN 9781845671365
(I don’t know hy the author has changed in the Amazon listing, my copy is definitely credited to Lyn Davies! Weird!)
****************************
The Alphabet
David Sachs/Arrow
ISBN 9780099436829
(Both of the above are different approaches to the history of the so-
*****************************
Coined by Shakespeare
Jeffrey McQuain & Stanley Malless/
Merriam Webster
ISBN 0877793530
(Words and phrases coined or adapted by the bard in his plays, and many are still in use today)
*****************************
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 16th edition
Adrian Room/Cassells
ISBN 9780304350964
(There is a later edition and variations: Modern..., Irish...)
Use on the web at:
(You will find out a lot about the origins of many English phrases from this book.
Don’t be worried about buying an older, second hand, edition, they are all useful.
I own and use half of the 1903 edition , it has items dropped from later ones. I’m
still looking for the L-
Cassells publish a wide range of dictionaries, many for unusual fields)
(I have a bit of a thing about dictionaries anyway, but only own 28 at the moment...)
*****************************
Eats, shoots & leaves
Lynne Truss/Profiles Books
ISBN 1861976127
Have you ever listened to the comedy programme “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” on BBC Radio 4. If you aren’t living within range of that station and like plays on words, in English, I would very much recommend that you look at the link below for a sample:
Likewise I recommend “The Uxbridge English Dictionary” (yes, that is the correct spelling), published by Harper Collins. It is based on one of the rounds in the above programme. I hope the publishers and the team won’t mind me quoting some of the definitions:
Discover: a record sleeve
Impeccable: bird proof
Marigold: get rich quick
I’ve been interested in language, philosophy and the communication of meaning for most of my life. Although I like to see good, coherent, concise English written the older versions (Shakespeare etc.) puns and other plays on words, of any kind, are great fun.
“Language is culture, from which customs spring. In it national character is
founded. How, for example, could the intrinsic formality of French, the hide-
“Language most shows a man; speak that I might see thee.” Ben Jonson, 1572 -
NEED A QUOTATION?
TRY
The Quotations Page
It full of them!
To translate, select and copy the text and then paste into
ENGLISH is a real mongrel language, which is why it is the most used language in the world, if you take users of all grades of competence. This is in spite of the absolutely crazy spelling and pronunciation “rules” that it suffers from.
I suppose that we have the famous Dr Samuel Johnson to blame for some of this.
In choosing the words for his dictionary he seems to have had a penchant for Old
and Middle English spellings, “plough” rather than “plow”. In Old English every letter
was pronounced, try saying “thought” like that (except “th” was a single letter
originally, “ð” or “Þ”), sort of “tho-
How many words can a language have for one thing? When it is skin in English it can also be hide, pelt or fur. Having several words for one thing does have advantages,it means that poets and authors have a very rich language to chose their words from. Its probably the most flexible language in the world, but one of the hardest to learn.
Washington Post's Mensa Invitational asks readers to take any word from the dictionary,
alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
Another challenge is to find new definitions for existing words, similar to “The Uxbridge” above.
Click here to see some winners.