Jan 7, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: handsy Just before Christmas, Oxford dictionaries announced their word of the year for 2017: youthquake. For some reason, these annual announcements always attract a lot of media attention here and this time was no different. Articles in a wide range of newspapers explored the reasons why the word, which is defined as ‘a significant cultural, political, […]
Dec 30, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: resolution The tradition of starting the new year by making New Year’s resolutions is an ancient one. The Babylonians used to promise their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed goods and pay their debts, while the Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, after whom the […]
Nov 19, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: bling When I was in the last two years of secondary school, I did History A-level, and spent quite a lot of time reading about the English Civil War, the execution of King Charles the First, the eleven-year Interregnum – the period of time when the country had no king or queen, and was instead ruled […]
Nov 8, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: bolshie Last Wednesday marked the centenary (the 100th anniversary) of the 1917 Russian revolution. In March that year, Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, abdicated. The First World War had been disastrous for the country and food shortages and rampant inflation proved to be the last straw. In Petrograd (now known as Saint Petersburg), soldiers […]
Nov 6, 2017 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: faff Over the last few days, I’ve been in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, running a teacher development seminar for around 150 wonderful locals. In one particular session, we were looking at pronunciation, and I was talking about the way my own approach to dealing with pronunciation in class has changed over time. I mentioned that […]
