English Language FAQ

Twitter CEO: 'We suck at dealing with abuse ' An internet troll is someone who posts malign comments online. The intention is to insult or ridicule a group or individual.  Where does the word come from? The etymology is complex -  there are trails to an old French hunting term  troller  and a norse one describing a mythological monster.  Why did troll catch-on online? The Internet use of troll  probably derives from a slang term used by US naval pilots in the 1970s -  see here . So trolls just insult people for fun? Trolling can simply consist of crude abuse but some self-confessed trolls pride themselves on their cunning attacks on their victims. One strategy is to join a group under false pretences and then goad genuine members of the group with ridiculous, provocative or abusive comments.  Are they just an unpleasant nuisance? Sometimes trolling can have a sinister impact Jojo Moyes revealed in an article in the Daily Telegraph Trolling - posting inf

3.  Give out  in Ireland commonly means to scold or complain: You can give out to someone, or just give out. It’s often intensified in different ways, e.g.  He was  giving out stink to them . (phrasal verb) From Stan Carey's fun list How is it used? I heard this a lot - sometimes as a warning to drop a contentious subject 'Will you quit giving out about that now' - more often in amusement 'well he would never stop giving out about how much the loved the job - then one day he didn't turn up for work and that was the last we saw of him ....

The word Pragmatic has been researched more than any other in the near 200 year history of Merriam-Webster. dictionary. It is currently the 11th most searched for word.  Definitions:  prag•mat•ic   (prægˈmæt ɪk) adj. 1. concerned with practical considerations or consequences; having a practical point of view. 2. of or pertaining to philosophical pragmatism. 3. of or pertaining to pragmatics. 4. treating historical phenomena with special reference to their causes, antecedent conditions, and results. 5. of or pertaining to the affairs of a state or community. 6. Archaic. a. busy; active. b. officious; meddlesome. c. dogmatic; opinionated. n.7. pragmatic sanction + prag•mat′i•cal for for defs.1, 2, 5) Commonly understood to mean  - Doing what works best in the circumstances, acting according to practical considerations rather than abstract principle, to deal with the real world. Origin -  Classical Latin  pragmaticus , skilled in business or law ; from Cla

There are thousands of regular verbs ( paint, walk)  - and less than two hundred irregular verbs.  Yet it is those awkward irregulars which dominate in spoken in English ( see here ). English Language 100 FAQ Teaching Pack     -  only £1.99 using discount code  CQDWKF0 Grammar Girl has a slightly different take here - and talks about verbs becoming irregular in her most recent podcast. Use offer code CQDWKF0 to download English FAQ Teaching Pack  for only £1.99

with thanks to Taking English One Thumb at a Time ( dūd, dyūd )  n. Informal . An Easterner or city person who vacations on a ranch in the West. Informal . A man who is very fancy or sharp in dress and demeanor. Slang . A man; a fellow. dudes  Persons of either sex. tr.v. ,  dud·ed ,  dud·ing ,  dudes . Slang . To dress elaborately or flamboyantly:  got all duded up for the show. interj.   Slang Used to express approval, satisfaction, or congratulations. Source The  origins of the word dude are disputed but certainly predate  Dude, Where’s my Car? (2000). According to the American Heritage Dictionary:  Originally it was applied to fancy-dressed city folk who went out west on vacation. In this usage it first appears in the 1870s. A New York newspaper declared one Evan Berry (left) the ‘King of the Dudes’ in 1888. 'Dude' makes an appearance  in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). The word also pops-up in the letters of an

Atticus Finch:the stalwart hero of To Kill a Mockingbird  A stalwart person is reliable, dependable, resolute (or inflexible depending on your perspective.) The word is probably a  14th Century Scottish variant on a old English term: stælwierðe "good, serviceable," In the US the term acquired a political dimension with a section of the Republican Party  that refused to abandon its Civil War hostility to the south. They became known as the 'Stalwart Party', a label that stuck. A version of this post is included in the  English FAQ Teaching Pack   Download for only £1.99 with offer code CQDWKF0