Interesting Facts

The word of the year for 2015, as chosen by the Oxford English dictionary, is a pictograph: (Officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, (I call it laugh till you cry) was chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015. I wonder what Shakespeare would say.  Answers on the back of a postcard using 10 emojis or less.)

Seemingly the word "twerk", which was made famous (notorious) by Miley Cyrus' antics on stage and has just made it into the Oxford English dictionary, is almost 200 years old. (It was first used as a noun in 1820, but was spelt “twirk”, and referred to a “twisting or jerking movement” or “twitch”. The verb is believed to have emerged later in 1848, and the “twerk” spelling was in popular use by 1901. So, Miley Cyrus, stick that in your e-cigarette and vape it.)

A school in Middlesborough, in the UK, has drawn up a list of banned words and phrases. (The head teacher, Carol Walker, has drawn up the list to promote standard English in order to improve the job chances of the pupils at the school. Here's the list and the suggested alternatives:- I done that. - I have done that. / I did that. I seen that. - I have seen that. / I saw that. Yous - You lot come her. I dunno - I don't know. It's nowt - It's nothing Letta / Butta etc. - letter - butter etc. Your - Your late should be you're late. Werk / shert etc - work / shirt etc. E was sat there - He was sitting there. Dropping the "th" - "School finishes at free fifteen," should be, "School finishes at three fifteen." Gizit ere - Please give it to me. or Please give me the ... Yes, as anyone who visits my sessions regularly knows, some people in the UK really do talk like this.)

According to psychologist Professor Leslie Rescorla, author of the Language Development Survey, there are 310 words that should be part of a toddler's vocabulary. (25 of these words are words that every toddler should be able to use, as they are are among the most common and the first acquired when learning to speak. As an ESL learner, you might want to know what these words are and check that you know them:- The 25-word list comprises mummy, daddy, baby, milk, juice, hello, ball, yes, no, dog, cat, nose, eye, banana, biscuit, car, hot, thank you, bath, shoe, hat, book, all gone, more and bye-bye. The 310-word list seems to be under copyright.)

Researchers at Harvard University and Google have found that the English language has expanded by 8,500 words a year in the new millennium and now stands at 1,022,000 words. ( But nearly half of the new words are not included in any dictionary and are dubbed lexical "dark matter". They are either slang or invented jargon.  Which is why we have the Urban Dictionary.)   Source

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has banned 1,600 words it deems to be obscene. (The words and phrases banned include 1,109 English words and another 568 in Pakistan’s national Urdu language, which in itself is interesting - do Pakistani people prefer swearing in English? (I know they do in Wales.) Now, I realise that there is a ban list on the forum, but it's limited to indecent language, and there certainly aren't 1,600 words on the list! In addition my list doesn't include everyday words like “idiot” (try imbecile) or “barf" (try throw up - I'd like to see them ban throw and up).) Here's a list of the banned words - Parental Advisory.

The 1st Brewhouse, in Pune, western India, was India's first licenced brew-pub. (Beer is becoming a popular drink in India and at the 1st Brewhouse they brew a beer called Doolally, which is British slang for going mad. If someone could send me a bottle to taste, I'd be very happy.)

The word retard was first used in 1489, but back then it meant delay, stemming from the French word "retardant". (According to etymonline.com, it was used in the sense of slow childhood development "mentally slow," from 1895 and around 1970 it took on the more offensive meaning "retarded person," in AmE. Now there's a campaign to have it removed from the English language called "The 'r' word campaign", http://therword.org/ spearheaded by Sarah Palin of all people. Good luck with getting it removed from the Urban Dictionary Ms Palin.)

 Hamlet has been translated into Klingon. ("To be or not to be" translates into "taH pagh taHbe".  Now you might think this is a useless fact, and you'd be right.)

The English word pineapple was first recorded in 1398, when it was used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees (now called pine cones). (When European explorers discovered this tropical fruit they called them pineapples (first recorded in 1664) because of their resemblance to what is now known as the pine cone.   The term pine cone was first recorded in 1694, and was used to replace the original meaning of pineapple.   Words change, their meaning changes, their usage changes, and that's why you can never stop learning.)

Pasteurisation was named after the French scientist Louis Pasteur. (He demonstrated that wine soured because of microorganisms that could be killed by heating the wine to 55° C for several minutes. When applied to beer and milk, this process soon came into use throughout the world. As he said, "A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world".)