I have received a question in the form of a comment on my article British English v American English (which is by the far most popular post on this blog, as it turns out). Here it is: I am confused about the word “round” and “around” When do you Brits use them and how are [...]
Archive for the ‘Vocabulary’ Category
There’s no getting (a)round it…
August 15, 2010
You’re getting warmer
February 23, 2009
Kia Ora, the name of a brand of fruit squash in the 70s (does it still exist?) means “hello” in Maori.
More language gems
February 19, 2009
More foreign words that are really one-word poems: karaoke (literally “empty orchestra” in Japanese) Zeitlupe (slow motion in German – literally “time magnifier”) Glühbirne (lightbulb – literally “glow pear”) (also: Glühwein (English: mulled wine – because it gives you a glowing feeling after skiing (après-ski) ?) Handschuh (glove) – (lit. “handshoe”) Italian (politics): apartitico (not belonging [...]
April Fish
April 2, 2008
April Fools in French are called poissons d’avril (literally “April fish”). On 1 April 2007, British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that President Nicolas Sarkozy was to have an operation to make him taller at the Poisson d’Avril Medical Centre in Geneva. The parallel expression pesce d’aprile is used in Italian.
