English Language FAQ

There is no definitive answer to this. The name was first publicly used was in an article by Hollywood columnist about Katharine Hepburn's first Best Actress victory at the fifth annual ceremony in 1934. By 1939 the word was universally know - but the origins remain unclear. One theory is that the name came from an early Academy director, Margaret Herrick, in 1931. According to this legend, Herrick thought that the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar. Another is that Bette Davies named it after her husband - but that was in 1936. A good example of how a nickname can survive long after its source is forgotten.

Or  has there 'never been a time when English was not thought to be going to hell in a handcart'?  Complaints about English are (a) as old as the hills, (b) based on no linguistic logic, and (c) ultimately futile, since no one can stop language from varying and changing.   In The Language Wars , Henry Hitchings argues there has never been a time when English was not thought to be going to hell in a handcart. He cites what sounds like a contemporary essay on "the growing illiteracy of American boys" and invites us to guess when it was written. The answer turns out to be, in 1896 – and the boys whose illiteracy so alarmed the essay's author were not hillbillies or slum children, but Harvard undergraduates.  Source But aren't young people today reading far less?  Is the Internet destroying our 'book culture'? Adam Gopnik summarises the different approaches to this question: Never-Better : The internet is opening up a new information democracy. Everyone

There is no official academy of English as there is with French, Spanish and other European languages. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the closest we have to such an authority.  How does the OED decide which words to include? It accepts a new word if it is commonly used over a period of time.  More on how this works  here Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary  Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Dictionary & CD ROM) Concise Oxford English Dictionary: 11th Edition Revised 2008 Oxford English Dictionary: 20 vol. print set & CD ROM

Depends what you mean by beautiful? Or ugly for that matter. This brave blog has attempted a list of 100 'beautiful and ugly words'. The writer suggests: One of the many fascinating features of our language is how often words with pleasant associations are also quite pleasing on the tongue and even to the eye, and how many words, by contrast, acoustically and visually corroborate their disagreeable nature All pretty subjective but interesting to see that there are far more 'beautiful' words on the list than 'ugly' ones. Full list here:  

This is a question which still causes great confusion. Is the name change essentially political, an assertion of Chinese nationalism? Then why is still Pékin in French and Pekín in French? The Economist's Johnson Blog (named after the great dictionary pioneer) confidently put forward a theory last year - only to quickly withdraw it after protests from commentators. I personally go with the idea Peking is the Cantonese form of the word.  This is what I was told when I lived in (Cantonese speaking) Hong Kong and seems to make sense. Anyway, Kung Hei Fat Choi (a Happy (Cantonese!) New Year

Hamlet. At least according to the wonderful Howard Dietz lyric for 'That's Entertainment' in the Hollywood musical 'The Band Wagon' (1952).