In British English, the word ‘hoover’ is commonly used to refer to all vacuum cleaners and also the process of vacuuming. It is one of many cases where a brand dominates an industry to the extent that its name becomes synonymous with the product or service it provides – in American English, for example, ‘Kleenex’ is used to refer to a ‘tissue’, or ‘Band Aid’ is used to refer to a ‘plaster’ and, worldwide, ‘Googling’ often means ‘internet searching’ even when a search engine other than Google is being used. While these examples are not namesakes, the Hoover Company was in fact named after its found...
The word 'Embarrassment' appears in a list of 50 common words that Britons struggle to spell in a study commissioned by the TV channel Nick Jr UK to celebrate the launch of the children’s literacy show 'Wallykazam!' Apparently more than half of British adults struggle to spell common words and 20% of the 2,000 questioned admitted to using Google to check correct spellings. 'Embarrassment' originates from the 1670's French 'embarrasser' (to block) and Italian 'imbarrazzo' (to bar). The use of the word to make someone feel awkward started in the 1820's. To help save you from future embarrassing spelling moments, here are the 50 wor...
Despite its relatively recent invention, the internet has introduced hundreds of new words and phrases into the English language, and a notable few (the likes of ‘Google’ and ‘LOL’) have even made it into the dictionary! But in the last year or so, an unforeseen fancy for self-portraiture has afforded us a new word which has spread like a virus: ‘selfie’. Immediately the 21st century question of social-media-inspired vanity comes to mind, but it is worth remembering that the concept of a ‘selfie’ itself has been with us for thousands of years through self-portraiture and many would argue the case that the ‘selfie’ is an instan...
From sandwiches to wellington boots to the Nobel Prize, many words take their names from people or fictional characters, and these people and characters are known as eponyms. You might remember some examples of these eponymous figures from our past posts, such as Don Quixote and Mrs Malaprop from our ‘Words from Literature’ series, or Julius and Augustus Caesar from our post on where the months of the year originate from. Today we’ll take a look at five words which derive from the names of people or characters – perhaps one or two of them will surprise you! Adam’s Apple There are two theories as to why this feature of the human neck (the laryngeal promi...
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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