antidisestablishmentarianism
Although the OED contains both pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a lung disease) and floccipaucinihilipilification (the act of estimating as worthless), antidisestablishmentarianism is probably…
Category: Word Stories
Cricket
The late comedian Robin Williams once described cricket as ‘baseball on Valium’. Although it’s not a massively popular sport in…
Sycophant
My e-mailbag this month contains a complaint from Yiannis Iliopoulos of Kozani, who berates me in most polite terms for…
Word Stories: handsome
Those of us who are not cut out to be supermodels may well agree with the old English proverb that…
Word Stories: okay
While planning a new product in 1994, the Coca-Cola company found that Coca-Cola was the second most recognisable term across…
Word Stories: ye
You don’t have to go far in England, particularly in the south, to find somewhere selling over-priced tea and scones…
Word Stories: go
Here goes. I’m going to have a go at dealing with go, one of the commonest, and most complicated, verbs…
nim
In the mathematical realm of game theory, there is a simple game that has been analyzed and which is often…
Word Stories: orange
It’s been said that there are two words in English for which there are no perfect rhymes. One of them…
Word Stories: Easter
In most European languages, the spring festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ is referred to by a name related to…