Due to lockdown, more and more people are turning to the internet to find virtual alternatives for their usual entertainment. This week we are looking at twenty words that have evolved in meaning as technology has advanced. block This word for obstruct or prevent is used on the internet to describe the act of preventing someone from contacting you or seeing your information. She blocked anyone she didn’t know who tried to message her. bookmark This word for a paper or ribbon marker used to keep one’s place in a book now also describes the act of marking a webpage you want to refer to again. Make sure you bookmark Spe...
Taking the biscuit. A common point of confusion in the English language is the difference between the American and British meaning of ‘biscuit’. Both refer to a delectable baked treat, but what an Englishman would refer to as a ‘biscuit’ is, in America, known as a ‘cookie’. In America a biscuit is a savoury ‘quick bread’ with a consistency similar to the English scone (the pronunciation of which is another of the age-old discrepancy of the language!). In Britain the term biscuit seems to be a much broader term, and they come in an immeasurable and array of shapes and sizes, flavours and textures. The perpetual ambiguity surrounding the ‘biscuit’ comes from the origin of the word its sel...
This week we’ll be looking at another word that has evolved multiple meanings: cookie. The Internet age has transformed the meanings and connotations of hundreds of words and even introduced new ones into our dictionary; ‘Google’ and ‘retweet’ to name a couple. The word 'cookie' comes from the Dutch 'koekje' or ‘little cake’ and made its way into American culture as a small sweet cake. What would be deemed a biscuit in England would be called a 'cookie' in the States, where a biscuit is a kind of hard-crusted bread cake – much like British scones. Despite the differences in the definition of biscuit, both cul...
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