March 2006
Guest blogger: Self-employed? Are you paying too much tax?
March 31, 2006
By Teresa Noon If you have been trading for a while you may not have considered how you are currently set up. It may be that you have set up as a sole trader as it seemed like the easiest...
Murmuration
March 29, 2006
A term for a flock (of starlings). To see a short video of a murmuration of starlings over (what's left of) Brighton's West Pier, click on the image below (Windows Media file, 3.5MB, the size of a song in mp3...
Suite française
March 27, 2006
Suite française, by Irène Némirovsky, has been translated into English by Sandra Smith and is now available. I can't comment on the translation, but I have read the French original and it is an amazing first-hand account of life in...
The Simpsons, humour and linguistics
March 24, 2006
Margaret links to a post on HeiDeas on The Simpsons, linguistics and humour (extra helping here). Just what I needed to brighten up this dreary Friday morning. (via kalebeul)...
Milesker
March 23, 2006
This is one of a handful of Basque words I know, it means thank you. I was born in Bayonne and although I’m not strictly speaking Basque (most of my family are from the Landes region, just north of Bayonne),...
Cobweb
March 22, 2006
Today, a meeting with my bank led me to discover the origin of the word cobweb. Before leaving the office, I asked around if anyone wanted anything from the outside world. One of my office buddies was in desperate need...
Re
March 17, 2006
I always assumed that the word re, as in "re your email dated 6 March, I thank you very much for the offer of $1,000,000 in cash, but I shan’t be taking it up" was short for "regarding". Well, not...
Sybaritic
March 15, 2006
Sybaritic 1 (with capital initial): of or pertaining to Sybarite or its inhabitants. 2: characterised by or devoted to excessive luxury; effeminately luxurious. I came across this word in an Independent article about boutique hotels which mentions "sybaritic features such...
Syriana
March 13, 2006
Syriana - the title of George Clooney's latest film - is a term used by Washington think-tanks to describe hypothetical realignment of the Middle East. This is what Stephen Gaghan, the director, has to say about it: "Syriana" was a...
Translation links
March 10, 2006
I’m manically busy at the moment and unfortunately don’t have much time for my blog. Thankfully, there are lots of other blogs around! Here are some language/translation-related blogs that I've recently discovered: Le petit champignacien illustré Idiomatika blog Translator wannabe...