English Language FAQ

An izzard is the letter Z -  the 26th letter of the Roman alphabet.  Like the letter Y this was imported into Latin directly from Greek. It is pronounced zed in British English and zee in American English. This is because the British English version - also used in other English-speaking countries - derives its pronounciation from the old French zed  which in turn is based on the Greek zeta. Where did zee come from? Izzard was the standard pronunciation in the US until the early 19th Century. Gradually, however, the dominant pronunciation pattern (c=see, d=dee) was imposed. The word izzard has never been widely used outside the expression 'everything from A to izzard.'

"I am well aware that I am the 'umblest person going," said Uriah Heep, modestly.    Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

According to legend, provincial doctor Edward Jenner once overheard a young dairymaid boasting:  “I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox."​  This eventually lead to Jenner establishing that smallpox inoculation could provide protection against its far more lethal virological cousin. With a scientist's precision, Jenner called this process 'vaccination' - after vaccinia  the Latin word for cowpox. The cow connection proved great branding - the alleged vanity of the anonymous dairymaid has amused children for two hundred years. It also proved a gift to the original anti-vax movement, who were deeply suspicious of Jenner's devilish new life-saver.  

Mr Bloom prepares breakfast for himself, his wife & his cat. Photo by  Vital Sinkevich  on  Unsplash Ulysses (1922) is long novel in which, on the surface, very little happens. Over a single summer's day (June 16, 1904) we share the lives of three Dubliners: Stephen Dedalus  (a recently bereaved young graduate), Leopold Bloom (a middle-aged sales representative of Jewish origin) and Molly Bloom (unfaithful wife of Leopold and occasional singer).  All the action takes place in and around Dublin. Within this framework, Joyce experiments with a multitude of literary techniques in a daring attempt to find a literary form to express the complexity of the modern world. This demands a lot of the reader but offers rich rewards.  Read More

Photo by  CDC  on  Unsplash It is often assumed that the bubonic plague (black death) spread across Europe because the authorities did not understand the concept of contagion. In fact, it was widely understood that an infected person would pass their disease to others. What was not known was the precise transmission mechanism or what you needed to do to avoid contagion. It was obvious, however, that the disease was manifesting itself in particular localities. The key to prevention was isolation. You needed to keeping infected persons out your town, city or community. Who first used the term? In the 1340s the Venetian authorities in charge of the port city of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) issued the first quarantine measures. This was aimed  at ensuring that infected visitors did not mix with the rest of the population.  The edict established an isolation period of trentino giorni (30 days). This applied to anyone arriving from an area known to be affected by bubonic plague. This example

US presidential elections are not decided by  the  popular vote  (counting the number of votes obtained nationally for each candidate).  Each voter  votes for a state representative to allocate a vote for the president and vice president in what is called an  electoral college . What is the electoral college? States send delegates to the electoral college according to the state vote - with 48 out of 50 using a 'winner takes all system'. Only in Maine and Nebraska are the delegates allocated proportionally. The number of delegates sent to the electoral college is decided by the population of the state. Thus the largest delegations come from the most populous states: New York, California and Texas. Most states are comfortably red (Republican) or blue (Democrat) - see here . This means that presidential elections are essentially fought over a small number of purple or battleground states which swing between parties in different election cycles. Ohio was the classic exam