From the category archives:

Language Change and Slang

BuzzWord: hyperlocal

February 18, 2010

Hyperlocal is this week’s BuzzWord from our online English dictionary here at Macmillan. The adjective is used to describe a very specific, local area.
Apparently, many large companies are now focussing their attention on manipulating and delivering hyperlocal information. (The use of ‘manipulating’ here is probably a little dark, no?) Anyway, with the appearance of local [...]

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Brazinglish borrowings

February 15, 2010

Denilso de Lima, ELT author, teacher trainer and conference speaker in Brazil treats us to another guest post on the topic of Brazil English. You can visit Denilso’s blog Inglês na Ponta da Língua.
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I read Jussara’s post on Brazinglish and had to write a bit further about some other interesting and curious ways in which [...]

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Nadsat and the power of slang

February 8, 2010

There was me, that is Sarah, sat in front of the puter in my woolly toofles, after a hard day’s rabbiting, fagged and in need of a bit of spatchka, trying to gather together my messels and make up my rassoodock as to what slovos to write for this bloggywog. And I must confess, O [...]

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Bond, Basildon Bond

February 3, 2010

I was enjoying the links in Jonathan Cole’s recent blog post this morning, when I came across a fabulous (or ‘badass’ as it was described) word, palaeotypographist. This word means ‘one who studies early writing’.  From here, my thoughts wandered to outmoded forms of writing, such as the personal, handwritten letter.
Oh the perfect pleasure of [...]

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A blog and a half

January 28, 2010

It seems that obesity is sweeping the Western world in a terrifying, gelatinous tide. This phenomenon even has its own word these days: globesity.
Six months ago, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) called for a reduction in the size of chocolate bars to help tackle obesity.
Perhaps in defiance of this move, it seems that if you [...]

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January – British English month

January 7, 2010

Right. We’re back, we’re on, we’re in for 2010!
What a great way to end the year with an Edublog award; thanks so much to those who voted for us. As for 2010, we have some great things planned and can’t wait to share them with you. As well as more witty, entertaining, discussion-inducing fare a [...]

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Here’s to a new decade of language love …

January 6, 2010

Language can be divisive. Some people are relaxed about the way it keeps on changing, but others see change as decline. For them, English is ‘going to the dogs’, standards are falling, and the language is being overwhelmed by ‘slang’ and (even worse) ‘horrible Americanisms’. None of this is new. Samuel Johnson harked back to [...]

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BuzzWords in review – Kerry Maxwell’s Diary: The Edge of … English

December 16, 2009

Kerry Maxwell, author of the Macmillan Dictionary BuzzWord articles, casts her eye over the noughties and the words that defined each year.
Don’t forget: Macmillan Dictionary and Onestopenglish have teamed up for a Christmas special for teachers in the month of December!
1999 (December)
Downed a few alcopops when we proposed a toast to the noughties. My [...]

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Q&A: The meaning of fruitloops

December 14, 2009

A user of the Macmillan Dictionary has sent in a query about the meaning of a word that was new to me:
I am looking for the meaning of ‘fruitloops‘ as Debora Shuger uses it in her Political Theologies in Shakespeare’s England. ‘… the play wrestles with a law that seems basically fruitloops‘ says she.
I’m always [...]

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Mind your slanguage

December 8, 2009

If you are based in the UK, you have a few more days left to listen to this BBC Radio 4 broadcast in BBC iPlayer:
In the programme, poet Benjamin Zephaniah explores how people react to language change and slang. For more information, take a look at the BBC website.
Don’t miss it!

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