I've been asked to explain the origin of div . That's the British slang term div, meaning idiot. I'm afraid there will be no ex...

I've been reading a fantastic book called Only Beautiful, Please . This is not about the dress code at Inky Fool Mansions, instead it...

In honour of whatever's going on in the news, here is a link to an etymological map of Europe . You can zoom in and out just by clickin...

There's no mention of the   noun minute  anywhere in the Bible. That's not at all surprising really, because they didn't have...

A sottisier is a collection of foolish or stupid remarks. I may need to rename this blog. The word comes from the French, but was import...

Once upon a time (1910-89), there was a chap called Robert Pirosh . He was an American chap and in 1934 he decided that he wanted to become...

I was reading this fascinating interview with Damian O'Brien about his new book If Houses, Why Not Mouses? In it, he mentions that an...