Writing on the wall: innocuous or ominous? Depends how you read it.
Writing on the wall is an idiom that describes a situation fortelling the bad news to come. In other words the bad news is already known when you see the writing on the wall.
‘Répondez s’il vous plaît’: French influence on English
Most people who use RSVP today don’t speak French, many not realising it’s French at all allowing it to blend into the language. The letters have effectively become a universal shorthand for, ‘Let us know if you’re coming.’
Ferment and foment confuse the best of us: word usage
Foment means "to incite or rouse." The words have some overlap in use, as they can both be used to express agitation and situations that can cause change or unrest.’
What’s in a name? Inventors credit their work
From brushes to magnets and this is where we find Madame Magnolia Attraction. Magnolia became enamoured with magnets and their captivating forces. Her groundbreaking research paved the way for countless applications, from MRI machines to magnetic levitation trains.
If music be the food of love
Gotta love Shakespeare: origin of idioms
An idiom as colour to language. If music be the food of love was coined by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night. Here we discuss usage
Zeitgeist: origin of words
“The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era; For example, the Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period included a belief in industrial progress, and the Zeitgeist of the 1980s in the United States was a belief in the power of money and the many ways in which to spend it.”
Stop pretending things are okay
Papering over the potholes: idioms
I smile as I take my morning walk through Parkmore. The smile is an ironic one. The road workers are very busy painting the street markings and the L-outline at…
A stonking good word
Every now and then, a word comes a long that makes me prick up my ears and say, 'that's a good one'. Stonking is such a word. There’s so much…
Imagine money on the laundry line
A new take on money laundering
Last week while editing an academic text, my hawkish eyes fell upon the phrase money laundry. The esteemed professor had made a typographical error. I smiled quietly to myself as…
How a rabbit shows us that AI is way off
The other day when I tried to help my friend set up her blog, a bunny thing happened. She wants her blog to be about faith-based principles from a Jewish…
