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Archive for the 'Word stuff' category

Why are England so bad at football? And other questions we’ve asked this year

2nd
Dec
by Sarah Turner

Where do you go when you want answers? The newspapers? The Encyclopaedia Britannica? Your mum? Nah. Our first port of call is the Internet. In fact, my little nephew could say “Google it” before he could say “Dog”.

Ask Jeeves has compiled a list of the top ten questions asked by Brits in 2010. Do we want to know the meaning of life? Or if God exists? Of why is it so freezing today when global warming is supposedly on the rise?

Nope. This is what we want to know:

1. Why are England so bad at football? (So little time)

2. Is the X-Factor fixed? (Yes)

3. What will the Government cut next? (Defence? MPs salaries? We live in hope)

4. Who is Justin Bieber? (Who indeed)

5. Did I vote for the right party? (Probably not)

6. Do all footballers cheat? (Yes. On and off the field)

7. Should I buy an Ipad? (Jeez. I dunno. Do you want one or not?)

8. What is Glee? (It’s faaaabulous!)

9. Why didn’t Coleen leave Wayne? (Aaah the BIG question. Because it’s better to be with a cheating scumbag that’s worth £33m than be a divorced single mother without a job. Just a hunch)

10. Will Big Brother ever come back? (Please, no)


Posted in Word stuff | comments icon 5 Comments »

Doolally, Pukka and Cushy. And other words of Indian origin in everyday use

23rd
Nov
by Sarah Turner

Historically, these great British Isles, where I live, have a habit of being invaded. (Although, thankfully, not for some time.)

The upside to this, of course, along with nice straight roads built by the Romans, is that the English language is a rich and colourful blend of Latin words, Anglo Saxon words and French words.

But that’s not all. The Brits, of course, love to “visit” other countries – whether we’re invited or not. And during the era of British rule in India (1612 – 1947) numerous words of Indian origin entered the English language.

These Indian words came from a variety of languages including Hindi, Urdu, Punajabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmir, Sindhi, and the sacred, ancient language Sanskrit.

And today, over 700 words in the Oxford English dictionary have Indian origin. Here are just a few of them:

Bandanna: From the Hindi word Bandhana meaning to tie.

Bangle: From the Hindi word Bangri meaning glass bracelet.

Bungalow: From the Hindi word Banla meaning “house in the Bengal style” or single story house.

Chit: From the Hindi word Chitthi meaning a slip of paper (used instead of money).

Cot: From the Hindi word Khat meaning portable bed, couch or hammock.

Cummerbund: From the Urdu word Kamar-band meaning waistband.

Cushy: From: the Hindi word Khush meaning happy, easy, pleasant.

Doolally: From the town of Deolali, the location of an army base and sanatorium where soldiers leaving India in the late 19th century were sent before leaving for home. Those that became mentally deranged after contacting a fever, or Tap in Urdu, were said to have gone Doolally Tap.

Guru: A Hindi word meaning spiritual leader or guide, teacher instructor. From the Sanskrit words Guruh meaning weighty, heavy, grave.

Khaki: An Urdu word meaning dusty or dust coloured.

Pundit: From the Hindi word Pandit meaning a learned man. From the Sanskrit word Panditah meaning learned scholar.

Pukka: From the Hindi words Pakka meaning cooked, solid, substantial.

Pyjamas or Pajamas: From the Urdu word payjamah meaning leg garment.

Shampoo: From the Hindi word Champo, meaning to press and massage. 

Thug: From the Hindi word Thag meaning a thief or conman and the Sanskirt word Sthaga meaning robber.

Yoga: A Sanskrit word for the union of mind, body and spirit.

Any favourite Indian words? And Chicken Tikka Massala, Tarka Dal, Sag Aloo and Bhindi Bhaji don’t count!


Tags: anglo saxon, cushy, doolally, french words, indian words, latin, pukka
Posted in Word stuff | comments icon 5 Comments »

Portmanteaus. What are they? And where can I buy one?

5th
Nov
by Sarah Turner

I was at a networking meeting the other day when someone declared that blog posts should always be infotaining. i.e. informative and entertaining. Well, quite.

Leather bag by SamikkiIt got me thinking about portmanteaus: those words that are a blend of two other words. Or to be more precise they’re the beginning of one word joined to the end of another.

Some are rotten. Like infotaining for one. Or copelessness (from cope and hopelessness). Or those famous couple ones like Brangelina or Bennifer or errr…umm…Jedward.

And some are just invented by marketing departments to get us to buy more stuff. “Oooh you’re a chocoholic. Here. Buy another three bars why don’t you?”

Some portmanteaus are now so part of our everyday language it’s hard to think of their origin as two separate words. “Come over in a fortnight for a ginormous brunch and bring your camcorder with you.”

And, of course, our online language is awash with portmanteaus including Internet, email, malware, blog, netiquette. emoticon, webinar, WiFi and Wikipedia to name just a few.

The word portmanteau itself is a blend word as it combines the words porter (to carry) and manteau (cloak) and actually means a small leather travel case. It’s often thought portmanteaus originated from the author Lewis Carroll who used them liberally in Through the Looking Glass published in 1872. Chortle and Galumph are two of Carroll’s portmanteaus. Not so, according  to fellow copywriter Jonathan Gabay who states that examples of word blending have been found in 7th century Old English manuscripts. 

So without further ado here are a few famous portmanteaus.

Advertorial: Advert and Editorial
Brunch: Breakfast and Lunch
Bionic: Biology and Electronic
Blog: Web and Log
Camcorder: Camera and Recorder
Chillax: Chill and Relax
Chortle: Chuckle and Snort
Dumfound: Dumb and Confound
Email: Electronic and Mail
Emoticon: Emotion and Icon
Fanzine: Fan and Magazine
Fortnight: Fourteen and Nights
Galumph: Gallop and Triumph
Ginormous: Gigantic and Enormous
Glitz: Glamour and Ritz
Hassle: Haggle and Tussle
Humongous: Huge and Monstrous
Infomercial: Information and Commercial
Intercom: Internal and Communications
Internet: International and Network
Malware: Malicious and Software
Motel: Motor and Hotel
Muppet: Marionette and Puppet
Netiquette: Internet and Etiquette
Piffle: Piddle and Trifle
Prissy: Prim and Sissy
Smog: Smoke and Fog
Squiggle: Squirm and Wiggle
Telex: Teleprinter and Exchange
Webinar: Web and Seminar
WiFi: Wireless and Fidelity
Wikipedia: Wiki and Encyclopedia

Got any favourite portmanteaus? Or portmanteaus of the future? Let us know in the comments. 

Image courtesy of Samikki


Tags: blend words, jonathan gabay, lewis carroll, portmanteaus
Posted in Copywriting, Grammar tips, Word stuff | comments icon 2 Comments »

F***ing hell. Is it ok to swear now?

22nd
Oct
by Sarah Turner

In honour of English Language Day last week I tweeted an old blog post about Anglo Saxon words. On Twitter @CiaranNorris replied “because Anglo Saxon words are ****ing great.” (Ciaran’s asterisks.)

Indeed.

It’s not cool to swear though, right? Or is it? Once frowned upon as showing lack of intelligence it now seems perfectly acceptable to cuss.

Stephen Fry, the cunning linguist says of swearing “the sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or of a lack of verbal interest is a f***ing lunatic.”

In an article in Stylist magazine last week they wrote that swearing had been scientifically proven to “ease pain, increase productivity and bond us at work”. F***ing hell. That’s impressive.

I remember the Sex Pistols back in the 70s (look it up kids) going on an expletive rampage when interviewed on TV. There was shock and outrage and parents ran to cover their children’s ears.

And yet turn on your TV these days and you’ll hear the likes of Gordon Ramsay turning the air blue whilst making an awfully nice lobster salad. Gordy’s show is even called The F Word.

So yelling a cuss word because you’ve got a parking ticket, broken your leg, or because you’re under stress at work all seem acceptable.

But how about writing swearwords? Is it OK to write f*ck, sh*t or b*llocks in your article, blog or tweet?

We try and get around it, of course, by substituting an asterisk for one or some of the letters as if this will protect the innocent or at least blame the reader for having a dirty mind. “Oh you saw sh*t and read it as shit did you? That’s your fault then. What I meant was shut.”

And then we end up with the sort of nonsense you get in the Sunday papers where you’re left wondering what the swearwords actually are. “Racquel, the 22 year old escort accused the premiership footballer of having a small p**** being s***** and a b***** a******. “

The Guardian regularly uses sh*t (sans asterisk) and even had f*ck on the front page recently. (Just for the record they’re using b*stard less whilst w*anker has remained stable.)

Cursebird monitors swearing on Twitter in a real time feed. And there’s loads of it. At the time of writing f*ck and sh*t are leading the way closely followed by b*tch and p*ss. Nice.

The talented @naomidunford over at Ittybiz doesn’t give a sh*t about swearwords and is famous for effing and blinding her way through her blog posts. It hasn’t bothered her readers and she’s got a huge following.

But I’m not so sure it’s for everybody. I once wrote that you shouldn’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t say to your mum. And I think that includes swearwords. Yeah, the asterisk thing is a bit of a cop out I know. But it does acknowledge that you’ve given some thought to other people’s feelings.

What do you think? Should we refrain from cussing online? Or is it all a load of Anglo Saxon b*llocks?

Let us know in the comments.


Tags: swearing, swearwords
Posted in Copywriting, Social media, Word stuff | comments icon 26 Comments »

They think it’s all over…and other football clichés we love

29th
Jun
by Sarah Turner

Well that’s that then. The fat lady is singing and we’re all as sick as a parrot. Following England’s early bath we’ve started the post mortem and the clichés have been spewing out quicker than Lionel Messi on speed. ‘We’re failing at grass roots level’. ‘We need to have a roots and branch investigation.’ ‘England needs an English manager.’

What is it about football and clichés? Don’t know. But a World Cup wouldn’t be a World Cup without a few ‘played his socks off’ would it? Here are some other favourites we’ve heard in the last few weeks.

John Motson - Football commentatorArgentina is a team that likes to play football
As opposed to all the other teams which would prefer to play rounders or ping pong given half a chance.

He’s not that kind of player
Said of a player whose crunching tackle on the opposition’s No. 9 has led to him being carried off on a stretcher. Thus proving he is that kind of player.

He should have scored
Yes, that is the idea.

Couldn’t have hit it any better (as the ball whistles by the far post)
Did it go in? Nope? Then he probably could have hit it better.

The defender’s done just enough to put him off
Said of a centre half who has just clattered into the back of a player, sending him into the first row.

It’s important……we get off to a good start/score first/keep our heads up/defend well/ concentrate
Win. We just need to win. That’s the most important thing.

A game of two halves
Yep. Since the rules of Association Football were written in about 18 hundred and frozen to death it has always been a game of two halves. Unless your mum called you in for your tea early.

They’ve parked the bus in front of goal
Actually, no. The other team is defending well. And I think you’ll find the bus is in the car park where the driver left it.

If it wasn’t for the keeper they would have scored
Nooooo! Really? Damn that goalkeeper.

Six inches lower and that was in
Aaah that’s the point see? The crossbar is there for a reason.

Take one game at a time
In fact, there’s no other way you can play apart from one game at a time. Even if you’re ‘efficient Germans’ you can still only play one game at a time.

The Manager has lost the dressing room
Look it’s there. Next to the broom cupboard and the toilet. That Pavlos Joseph bloke seemed to find it ok.

Gerrard and Lampard can’t play together
What are they? Seven? ‘That’s my ball.’ ‘No, it’s mine.’ ‘Mine!’ ‘Waaaah!’ They’re two adults who play football professionally. Of course they can play together. Oh wait…

A good day at the office
Not really. Prancing round a bit of grass for an hour and a half is not like working in an office is it? Do I see a PC, a printer, a fax machine, stale milk and random coffee cups left in the sink? I do not. It’s not an office.

We always knew we were in for a tough game
We were crap and were played off the park.

They’ve got a lot of quality players
See above.

They worked very hard and made it difficult for us
See above.

 

Any more? Leave ‘em in the comments!


Tags: clichés, football, world cup
Posted in Grammar tips, Word stuff | comments icon 3 Comments »

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