Author Archive
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Posted by Sharon Creese on March 07, 2011
Did you know, today is International Women’s Day? This is a day designed to draw attention to the issues facing women around the world, and the focus this year is on education and training. In celebration, I think I shall apply the feminine gender to all things educational, so welcome to La Macmillan Blog, we [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 24, 2011
It’s that time of year again, when we’re all invited to decide which book over the past 12 months has been published with the strangest name. That’s right, voting is now open for the 2010 Bookseller / Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. Since 1978, the most weird and wonderful book titles have [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 23, 2011
I was watching a documentary about WikiLeaks the other day, and it made me wonder about the language we use to describe the act of revealing secrets. When we were young, it was telling tales, and in the corporate environment the person doing the telling has long been known as a whistle blower. But with [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 21, 2011
I’ve been wondering about brand names, or rather, one specific brand name – Nintendo’s Wii. The Wii is, of course, a now well-established gaming system. Apparently, the name is supposed to indicate the inclusiveness of playing together and the fact that the system is designed for everyone. The two lower case ‘i‘s though, make it [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 18, 2011
I was interested in this article about language in children’s television, featured in last week’s round-up post. I love that it reflects the diversity of modern society, but apparently there have been mixed reactions to the Rastamouse programme. I do understand parents’ fears that their children may accidentally sound racist simply by copying the phrases [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 16, 2011
I think my favourite new entry in the Open Dictionary this week has to be content farm, though it’s my favourite for all the wrong reasons. The phrase just seems to have an ‘icky‘ feel to it, like it’s referring to something rather unpleasant or unsavoury. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of the term [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 14, 2011
Oh dear. I’m slightly concerned to see that the word outsourcing has been getting a lot of attention in the Macmillan Dictionary lately. Outsourcing is the kind of word that tends to come up in the same context as downsizing, rationalizing and redundancy. Companies seeking to cut costs often downsize their workforce and then outsource [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 11, 2011
It’s interesting how the importance of colour varies from culture to culture, and the way that impacts on language. In Western countries, white is the colour of weddings, because it’s supposed to represent purity, while black is sombre and suited to sad occassions like funerals. Our language reflects that, with white representing ‘good’ and black [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 09, 2011
There’s a whole new meaning, and spelling, for the word git in the Open Dictionary this week – ghit. Of course, git is an insulting term for someone who’s annoying you, but ghit has an altogether different flavour. Like so many new terms these days, it has its roots in technology, and is actually a [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on February 02, 2011
What day do you consider to be the first day of the week? To me, it’s always seemed natural that it’s Monday (because that was the first day of the school week, I suppose), but for some people, it’s Sunday. This seems odd to me, given that Sunday is part of the weekend (note the [...]
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