This post contains a selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include, or just add a comment to the post, with the link(s) you’d like to share.
Global English
A fierce popular usage in Ireland
Fierce leads a different sort of life in colloquial Irish English, where we put it to adverbial use as an intensifier, like very.
Language change and slang
Multicultural London English
Find out how far you are down with the kids with this fascinating glossary of Multicultural London English, from Piff to Cat, compiled by Chris Nott.
Improve your English
Inside the etymological cave of “cub”
The official mascot of the Chicago Cubs is a young bear cub. The Chicago Daily News nicknamed the team the Cubs in 1902, as they’ve been called ever since.
Words, books and language
Ghost Words
In 1886, a lexicographer named Walter Skeat first used the phrase “ghost words” to describe words that he said had “no real existence.”
Saintly Words
To mark All Saints Day on November 1st, here’s a post about the origins of saintly words.
Podcast
Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Like That?
What Bette Davis, FDR, and Ralph Kramden have in common when it comes to speech.
