Etymology
Does Canopus have a connection with canopy?
I spent some time looking for the connection between the ancient city of Canopus and the English canopy. Nelson won…
The mysteries of ‘spoof’
‘Spook or spoof?’ asked my husband, throwing a copy of the paper over to me, and only missing by a…
Is it ‘off his own back’ or ‘off his own bat’?
During the last Olympics, Jane Edwards from Worcestershire wrote to the Times observing that Mrs Malaprop herself would have found…
What’s the score on ‘score’?
The courtship rituals of the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility last ten weeks. The consummation is a fiscal…
Where did ‘husband’ come from?
‘Am I housebound?’ asked my husband as I was discussing with him the complicated history of the name for his…
Are Reeves and Starmer really in ‘lockstep’?
‘She and I work together, we think together,’ said Sir Keir Starmer of Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.…
The politics of pips
‘What larks!’ exclaimed my husband archly, assuming that a connection between personal independence payments and Pip in Great Expectations would…
The cunning meanings of quant
The FT headline said: ‘Man Group orders quants back to office five days a week.’ I didn’t know what quants…
The politics of ‘rocket boosters’
Sir Keir Starmer said the other day that he wanted to put rocket boosters under AI. It’s not the only…
How can ‘sanction’ mean two opposing things?
Sir Keir Starmer said ‘he could “not imagine” the circumstances in which he would sanction a new referendum’ on Scottish…
Spinoza, Epicurus and the question of ‘epikoros’
With surprise, I heard from a Jewish friend that a Hebrew term for a heretic is epikoros, apparently derived from…
Is Nigel Farage a ‘viper’?
‘Farage is no leader,’ said Rupert Lowe MP. ‘He is a coward and a viper.’ Cedric Hardwicke immediately came to…
How do you pronounce ‘mayoralty’?
‘Six!’ cried my husband, waving his notebook as he monitored the by-elections. He wasn’t counting Reform wins but the ways…
‘Trillions’ doesn’t add up
‘Oh no, darling’ said my husband, stirring from torpor in his armchair, ‘only about seven ounces of you is bacteria…
What is ‘misogynoir’?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been troubled by two verbal peculiarities in a week. The Duchess corrected a…
Why do we diminish ‘compendious’?
My husband has been telling me, at some length, about the Gamages Christmas catalogue that fired his childhood imagination and…
Do you ‘damp down’ or ‘tamp down’?
‘Dampfschifffahrt!’ shouted my husband as though it were funny. I had been saying how strange it was that explosive gas…
What does Meghan mean by ‘intentional living’?
‘What are your intentions towards my daughter?’ said my husband, screwing an imaginary monocle into his eye. We had been…
Geoffrey Madan and the joy of ‘unusual articles’
In 1924 Geoffrey Madan retired, aged 29, and devoted himself to books. ‘A genius for friendship, selfless devotion to progressive…
