Having been in South Africa for all of a few hours, I have, of course, bought myself a dictionary. I can't help it and I admit that I...

   I'm flying to South Africa tomorrow to take part in the Open Book Festival . This involved numerous bits of paperwork and e-tickets...

Somebody else has been reading Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue , and has made a list of seventeen words for what I like to call...

Somebody mentioned having "no qualms" about something on Saturday night, and it made me wonder what a qualm actually was. A quic...

A repost, as I still can't type. A lady's boudoir is where she sulks. Once upon a time there was a French word bouder meaning...

I'll be doing a little thingy at the Ham & High Literary Festival in North London this Sunday at four o'clock. More details and...

The best possible thing you can do today is to follow this link to a series of obscure and archaic words with pretty pictures illustrating ...