New words travel from one variety of English to another and at a rapidly increasing rate, thanks to the way language is exchanged today over e-mail, chat rooms, TV, etc. Susie Dent Read Quote
In all my years in ‘Countdown’s’ Dictionary Corner, the subject most guaranteed to rankle with our viewers is the presence of Americanisms in the dictionary. Susie Dent Read Quote
From the start, English has happily absorbed words from every tongue it’s encountered. Susie Dent Read Quote
I’m not a brazen extrovert, but I’m not as blushing or demure as people might think. Susie Dent Read Quote
The one thing – apart from assumptions about German – that I have to challenge frequently is people assuming that lexicographers are fierce protectors of the language when in fact our job is not to put a lid on it. Susie Dent Read Quote
According to my parents, I’ve always liked to tune into the conversations of others. But rather than hope for a snippet of salacious gossip, it has always been the words themselves that I wanted to understand. Susie Dent Read Quote
What I’ve discovered is that from football fans to undertakers, secret agents to marble-players and politicians, we all are part of at least one tribe. By tribes, I’m talking anthropologically; these groups are determined less by genes and more by the work they do or the passions they pursue. Susie Dent Read Quote
Can I get a mochaccino?’: a statement that, for many, is worse than any number of nails down a blackboard. Not on account of the coffee – most of us drink Ventis aplenty these days – rather it’s the ‘can I get?’ – three words that regularly top the list of British bugbears. Susie Dent Read Quote
The word ‘eavesdropper’ originally referred to people who, under the pretence of taking in some fresh air, would stand under the ‘eavesdrip’ of their house – from which the collected raindrops would fall – in the hopes of catching any juicy tid-bits of information that might come their way from their neighbour’s property. Susie Dent Read Quote