Not sure I like patulousness for the noun. Surely patulence is sweeter?

Thanks bnjtokyo. Of course. I hadn't thought it through properly. It's just that in my experience Hermitage wine is synonymous with Shiraz - which I think is the same thing as Syrah. It is easy to forget that it's really a place when it is used in that way. Just as we often forget that Sherry is a p...

Really! A silent h! Well maybe in America but in England and Australia, the h is always pronounced and the emphasis is on the first syllable. The French word has been fully absorbed and anglicised. Even when Orwell wrote his Homage to Catalonia in what, the 30s? The American pronunciation is heard o...

Yes, perhaps lieutenant as a place-holder is a rank held in an 'acting' role while the serious officers are away. In the British army anyway, lieutenant is the lowest commissioned rank so presumably a sergeant or similar was co-opted to the role after the captain had been shot?

Just came across this one in a newspaper article on-line: On Tuesday afternoon shattered glass from the broken front windows was scattered all over the well-kempt front yard. It prompted me to explore kempt. Apparently it means well-kept from ME cemd meaning combed. But this is nearly an orphan-nega...

Enlightening suggestions, Audiendus. Thank you. Interestingly and as an aside, 'have care' is used also in regional England. I was visiting a rural part of central England and ordered a pint of local beer in a pub. While he was pulling it, the publican said with a wonderful rolling local accent &quo...

Here's a recipe. Perhaps you've heard it only as coleslaw.

https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/classi ... e72e24afa9

Yes, a wonderful word. Can't recall exactly where I came across the expression 'slough of despond' but I think it was used in a poem I had to learn in detention, or something. But despond is another lovely word. Curiously, I did my undergraduate studies at a place in England called Slough. It was a ...

I was pondering this morning on my walk with the dog about the word 'caretaker'. I think Americans use a different word (is it janitor?) for the English word meaning a person who looks after a building or property and usually lives on the premises. Often the major role is security outside of operati...

Yes, my father was a great contributor to the language. I remember him emerging from the lavatory one day and declaring that "constipation is the thief of time" - surely a vastly superior epithet to the established 'procrastination' version

Again today I read an article in the paper about a body found on the beach. Police said "There are no suspicious circumstances". But hang on, suspicious is clearly related to suspect. I suspect that Julie's party is really for her 50th birthday although she says it's just for fun. There is...

Lovely word. I remember my father often referred to himself as being ambisinistrous - equally poor with either hand. Actually he was a reasonable-middling golfer and was once seen on the course unusually taking two airshots right-handed, hurling away his club, grabbing another from the bag, addressi...

Thanks for those thoughts call_copse. Yes pronouncing it properly (as the French) is to invite accusations of snobbery, and to pronounce it any other way is simply wrong! Don't use it at all; there are plenty of English alternatives. What an interesting name for a newspaper, Luke. Is it supposed to ...

Most interesting. Thanks Audiendus.

So it looks like peat is fair. I will peat this to my friends - the pedantic semanticists will be amused

I got onto this one by wondering what the plural of the word is. Surely it is already a plural, I thought, and the singular is presumably agendum. And if it is a plural already, it surely doesn't mean a list of things to discuss/do. It means rather 'things to discuss'. So 'an agenda' is not strictly...