Today I have been paying the farmer. Because farmers aren't farmers, they're tax-gatherers. Some people have trade surnames: M...

The English word hypocrite has a terribly simple etymology. It comes straight from the Ancient Greek hypokrites , which means actor , the k...

We are in that beautiful season of the year known as January, or to give it its full technical name the-season - of-plump-people-jogging . ...

[Repost] Welcome, dear reader, to January. January is a time to look back upon the dunghill of a year that has passed, and to look for...

The question 'Who's ahead in the polls?' is a delicious and savoury pun, because a poll  is a head. Or it was. Shakespeare ...

I have been considering the word cover . This is partly because The Etymologicon, The Horologicon and The Elements of Eloquence have be...

You are probably about to buy a dead tree and put it up in your living room. This is, if you ponder it, odd behaviour on your part. What...