the emergence of the political term ‘whataboutism’ in 1978

25th December 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

The Guardian, UK, 23 May 1978—used by one Lionel Bloch to designate—and denounce—the rhetoric employed by the advocates of the communist regimes

meaning and origin of ‘King Charles’s head’

28th August 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

obsession—from Dickens’s ‘David Copperfield’, in which Mr. Dick is unable to write his memoirs because of the intrusive image of King Charles the First’s head

origin of the word ‘sneeze’

2nd June 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

The verb ‘sneeze’ is an alteration of the obsolete verb ‘fnese’ due to misreading or misprinting it as ‘ſnese’ (= ‘snese’).

a linguistic investigation into ‘trumpery’

14th October 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

Donald Trump Lookups for trumpery have been spiking periodically since the end of 2015, as a result of the burgeoning political fortunes of Donald Trump. Recently, people have begun posting trumpery definitions to various social media sites. This fairly obscure word has a decidedly negative set of meanings which have delighted the real estate […]