Sometimes it is the simple words that we use all the time that surprise us when we find that we are not entirely sure of the meaning. In a recent discussion the trouble started with broil, which is not a common word in Australian English. It is an item of American English. But that led to bake and roast and grill.
Read MoreI feel it is more important to put oddities in English in a context and try to find the pattern in what is happening. Also it is important to know when to be outraged and when to acknowledge change in language.
Read MoreI have been a victim of the great lamington hoax. A few days ago a friend said to me that lamingtons were not Australian. They were a New Zealand concoction, like the pavlova.
Read MoreRepatriation in its broadest sense means ‘bringing someone home’ so the use of the term in relation to interstate transfers of bodies for burial is a natural extension of the accepted meaning.
Read MoreWe had JobSeeker and JobKeeper. Now we have JobMaker, the name of the proposed transformation of TAFE, an institution which used to operate well until its last reformation and privatisation.
Read MoreWe are well aware of the influence that American English has on us today but we are not as aware of our debt to American English in previous times. Words and phrases that we consider to be quintessential Australian English turn out to be borrowings from American English.
Read MoreAs I read through the words and phrases in Australian English that date back to WW1, I am struck by two clusters of words. The first congregates around the idea that any special sphere of activity demands its official names, but also its unofficial names. The second cluster relates to the humour that is derived from this particular experience, humour that ranges from the cheerful domestic to the black.
Read MoreI love the verb to over-egg. It is not a word that has high frequency these days. In British English it began life as the phrase to over-egg the pudding.
Read MoreWe have been offered COVID-19 as the name for this particular coronavirus but there seems to be some reluctance to use it.
Read MoreTwo great texts have had profound influence on the English language – the works of Shakespeare and the King James version of the Bible. Both have left us vocabulary items, but more importantly, they have left idioms – stereotypes – stories that we all share.
Read MoreThe latest kerfuffle between Harry and Megan and the Queen has been presented as an argument about their right to use the word royal in association with themselves and their various projects, some commercial and some charitable
Read MoreWhen the novel coronavirus first appeared we waited for it to be given a name. In medical jargon novel means ‘new in the sense of previously undescribed’, but the time would come when this virus was no longer new. We needed the equivalent of SARS as an identifier of this particular strain of coronavirus.
Read MoreWe need to acknowledge the efforts made by John Richards who founded the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001. Aged 96 he is calling it a day on a rather gloomy note. He feels that he has lost and the vast majority of people who misuse the apostrophe have won.
Read MoreI started to think about phrases coming from our experience with motor vehicles, and there are many of them understandably.
Read MoreWe now have competing naming systems, the naming system of the scientific community and that of the community at large who have not caught up with pterosaurs and are still talking about pterodactyls.
Read MoreThere is an interesting tussle emerging between Australian and New Zealand producers of manuka honey over the right to own the name manuka.
Read MoreThe next time someone says that we are being taken over by American English, I will point to the difference in the way our politicians hurl abuse. We stick to terms that have been crafted in the playground, insults like bedwetter.
Read MoreFor me sheila mostly inhabits the phrase blokes and sheilas which I thought of as possibly still used in the bush, but definitely a nod to traditional Aussie English. Harmless. So I had a look at some evidence of use of the word and found some surprising things.
Read MoreThere is politics also in the looming battle between the EU and Australia on our right to produce feta, haloumi, parmesan and prosecco in this country and export it to Europe labelled as such.
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