English Language FAQ

   "Be collected; No more amazement ; tell your piteous heart that there is no harm done."   Prospero to Miranda ,  The Tempest (1.3)

According to Merriam-Webster, the standard dictionary for American English, this is the All-Time Top Twenty:

Contrary to common assumption, English is not Latinate. Latin does not underpin the structure of the English language in terms of its grammar or syntax.

Prag•mat•ic    (prægˈmæt ɪk)  adj .   concerned with practical considerations or consequences; having a practical point of view.

The  earliest citation of  maunde  to describe the Thursday before Easter in Middle English dates to  the mid-15C.

  gigolo   / ˈʒɪɡəˌləʊ / n  (   pl   -los ) a man who is kept by a woman, esp an older woman a man who is paid to dance with or escort women

Here are the top ten words with the most entries in the Oxford English Dictionary:

Kabuki  theatre is a stylised Japanese dance-drama tradition.

1. Alarm bells rang - Alarm bells rang when the stock market fell for the third consecutive day. 2. Bells and whistles - deluxe extras, fancy add-ons or gadgets e.g. this microwave comes with several bells and whistles 3. Learn the ropes - nautical expression describing rope knots new sailors must learn. More generally refers to learning new skill. Here ‘ ropes ’ also refers to bell ropes. 4. Ring a bell - to remind you of something without recalling the specific information. His face rings a bell - do I know him from somewhere? Q: Do you know what counterpoint is?  A: It rings a bell . Something to do with music, isn’t it Q: Did you recognise the voice on the phone? A: No, but it rang a bel l . I’ve heard it somewhere before. 5. Saved by the bell - when a bad outcome is avoided because of time-based technicality e.g. Smith looked about to collapse but was saved by the bell.  Derives from the bell the end of every round of a boxing match. The first citation in the US was in...

In 1898, the British film exhibitor Arthur Cheetham offered Londoners short reels of football matches "now shown on a new silver screen which brings the pictures out almost as well as electric light." Cheetham proudly called his innovation a Silvograph , but the American film industry didn't adopt it for over a decade.  Edison A new, improved version was unveiled in 1909 on the US East Coast, where Edison had helped establish a nascent film industry. The Lyric Theatre in Smith St, New Jersey, was "equipped with a new patent silver-coated screen".  Within a year, the Gem Theatre in North Dakota installed a new silver screen, " coated with aluminium or silver paint....  each picture stands out a great deal more distinctly than on the old screen." Silver symbol A silver screen became not only a technological upgrade but also a symbol of cinema's glamour. Vaudeville encouraged audience participation, but films seem to come from a more remote, luxuriou...

Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon  Milton Friedman.

Hermann Rorschach   (1884–1922) invented the 'ink blot' personality test.  

A Christmas Carol  (1843) has been one of the most influential novels every written. In Stave One alone there are many of the most memorable words, phrases and idioms into the English language .  Bah Humbug!   interjection . An exclamation of irritation or disgust.  Dead as doornail  - obviously/conclusively dead. Ghost of Christmas Past :   noun.   A person or thing from a past you might choose to forget  Gruel  - a thin liquid food of oatmeal - used to refer to cheap/poor food.  Scrooge:   noun . Someone with cold/mean/miserly attitude. Also someone who transforms from bad to good. Tight fisted  - ungenerous  Famous quotations A Christmas Carol is also one of the most widely quoted texts in literature. Here are some widely used examples from the opening description of Scrooge: Marley was dead, to begin with … Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Oh! but he was …tight -fisted The cold within him froze his old...

Dictionaries  struggle to precisely define the nature of their core commodity.

Tycoon  is usually translated into English as "great lord".

Dickens festival, Rochester. Fagin hanging with Miss Havisham & the gang  I am well aware that I am the ‘umblest person going,” said Uriah Heep, modestly . Charles Dickens, David Copperfield No novelist has been more inventive in using character names to express character traits. Ernest L. Abel identifies seventeen examples that have entered general English. These ten are perhaps the best known: Scrooge -  miserliness, anti-Christmas, bah humbug etc  Mr Micawber -  spendthrift, ludicrously optimistic ‘something will turn up’  Fagin - charming, ruthless, leader of a gang of child thieves. Miss Havisham - embittered reclusive spinster Uriah Heep - obsequious, toadying, false humility. More recently humble brag   Podsnap  - complacent jingoist who “stood very high in his own opinion” Pecksniff -  hypocritical Pickwick - amiable bon viveur, 'Pickwick paunch' Gradgrind  -  hard, ruthless businessman who reduces everything to mon...

The original meaning of blackmail was not directly connected to the concept of extortion