The usual starting point of Merriam-Webster has let me down this week. It has an entry for ‘mither’ but bangs on about it being Scottish for mother or something like that. Wrong! So that means we go to a new source – the Oxford Dictionaries, another American English online resource. And it is spot on: Definition of mither in English: mither Pronunciation: /ˈmʌɪðə/ Entry from British & World English dictionary VERB dialect, chiefly Northern English 1 Make a fuss; moan: oh men—don’t they mither? 1.1 Pester or irritate (someone): More example sentences the pile of bills would mither her whenever she felt good What I cannot deal with is mithering colleagues who constantly bombard you with their insane comments or ways of working. He’s like… Read More

Unrequited is a word that is almost always associated with “unrequited love.” I have no idea what made me think of this word for today’s post in the series. It may be something to do with some of the books I have been reading lately 🙂 Anyway let’s ‘be off’ to good old Merriam-Webster: adjective un·re·quit·ed \ˌən-ri-ˈkwī-təd\ Popularity: Top 30% of words Simple Definition : not shared or returned by someone else Source: Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary Full Definition : not requited : not reciprocated or returned in kind <unrequited love> See unrequited defined for English-language learners Examples in a sentence a song about unrequited love First Known Use of unrequited circa 1542 The top Facebook comment is interesting: Cecil Ryan · University of Houston My… Read More

“You need to stop your gallivanting and do some homework,” is something I heard a good few times from my mother when I was a teenager.  “Gallivant” is a word taken for granted. Even if it is in your vocabulary, did you know anything about its origins? I didn’t and I find that information fascinating and ironic. It’s ironic because my mother would say that phrase to me when I was first interested in girls. Instead of studying for exams, I would go to my local youth club in the pretense of playing table-tennis but really my main aim was to chat to girls. The end result of my gallivanting was that I read the whole of ‘A Tale of Two Cities‘ by Charles Dickens… Read More

Disambiguate is a word that sounds intriguing. #WordWednesdayFun is partly to do with my love of words, part to do with my love of ‘word sounds,’ partly related to increasing ‘word power,’ and hopefully helping the odd person learn a new word to add to their vocabulary. Usual format – Merriam-Webster: Definition of disambiguate disambiguated disambiguating transitive verb : to establish a single semantic or grammatical interpretation for disambiguation dis-amˌbi-gyə-ˈwā-shən, -gyü-ˈā-\ noun First Known Use of disambiguate 1963 That is all there is! How disappointing and minimalist! And ‘first use’ in 1963 – I’m older than this word 🙂 That does not do this great word justice so let’s venture into the virtual etymological world – the first site on my Google search was vocabulary.com:… Read More

Gawp! What are you gawping at? Marvelously descriptive and emotional words. Words to be said with feeling. Gawp and gawping were often heard in the North of England. An illustration of their usage is when performing a task that goes awry – imagine for example trying to hitch up your trousers in a public place. Another example is if caught committing some social indiscretion such as picking one’s nose or scratching the backside. The likely spectator reaction would be an open-mouthed  stare. They would be gawping! Merriam-Webster says this: Simple Definition                                                                    … Read More

Gobsmacked is truly one of the great British words. Slight change of formula for this week’s post in the #WordWednesdayFun series. I am using Wordnik as the source*. This is what they say about this wonderful British word: Definitions from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License adj. Flabbergasted, astounded, speechless, overawed. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. adj. utterly astounded Etymologies As if smacked (“hit”) in the gob (“mouth (Irish / Scottish gaelic)”). (Wiktionary) Examples To say I was gobsmacked is something of an understatement. My Son In Books « Tales from the Reading Room I always liked the British slang “gobsmacked” — it sounds a little violent, but sometimes you do just feel smacked by whatever’s happening around you, you… Read More

Many people know what an apostrophe looks like. In case you do not, here is Exhibit A – This is some useful information I found on how to use it – You may be wondering how on earth my brain worked to choose this word for #WordWednesdayFun? Or, maybe not? 🙂  I was reading a thread on one of my favorite Facebook writer group pages. This is an excerpt from the chatter: Ok, all you grammar fascists, please help me out. He went to the dentist’s place. ie. he went to the place belonging to the dentist. So far, ok? So the same would apply to the butcher, baker, or candlestick maker. So what if we drop the place? He went to the dentists, or,… Read More

If someone had asked me a few moments ago, “What is a chanticleer?” I would have had to give up! I enjoy learning a new word. Let Merriam-Webster enlighten you if you were as ignorant as me (or is it I?) 🙂 Lookups for ‘chanticleer’ spike after the CCU Chanticleers become the 2016 College World Series Champions But what is a ‘chanticleer’? A ‘chanticleer’ is a rooster. The word comes from the name of a rooster who appeared in various narratives. Coastal Carolina capitalized on two errors on the same play for four unearned runs in the sixth inning, and the Chanticleers won their first national championship in any sport with a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 3 of the College World Series finals… Read More

Irascible! Wow! That’s such a neat word. It’s a word that came to mind after my contretemps here with one of my readers. Maybe I should say one of my ex-readers 🙂 I believe he is also an expat. He, in my humble opinion, was trying to tell me what I should or should not write about on this blog! Yes, crazy I know. He seemed to take umbrage with me penning an article to do with Brexit. He pointed out to me that this blog is called Expat in Bacolod. His reasoning appears to be that I should confine my musings to matters connected to Bacolod. That would exclude me from writing about many things of interest to me. Liverpool Football Club, sports in… Read More

Incandescent is maybe a word often used in a tired cliche – “he was incandescent with rage.” I wish I had a dollar for every time I have seen that or heard it said. I chose dollar rather than my native £ because soon it may be worth more! Blame the EU Referendum for that. On that subject, or rather the referendum and the value of the £, I received an email this morning from the TransferWise people. It informed me they were suspending international money transfers until after the referendum owing to the volatility of the £. It’s all a bit of a nuisance. Nay! It could be a problem for me seeing most of my income is paid in currency bearing H.M. The… Read More