Fair enough. Sorry. I don't like to breach protocol. I have removed the controversial bit. I have always enjoyed your efforts towards non-specificity in example sentences that might be seen otherwise to have a political slant. Good work.

Thanks Debbie.

I think you are a little hard on US intellect. There is nothing wrong with literal! Like everywhere else, there is a range of intellects. And thanks to some at the higher end, we are able to have some fun here in the Agora.

How interesting that in USA, it is still aerosol. The UK insists on aeroplane, but it is translated to airplane in US, I understand. So for consistency, today's word should be Airsol or Airosol.

So it is a hard th, as always in French. Bibliotheque. But tell me this: why is Anthony with a hard 't' sound, often pronounced 'th' in Australia. And in America, is Anthony t or th?

In UK it is as far as I recall always t as in Tony. Perhaps it's a French name?

I am sure the Good Doctor is right. Its association with a great leap surely came from a TV show or movie in the early fifties. Certainly even in the London suburbs where I grew up, we used the term to mark any great feat but particularly the great leap. I remember playing cowboys and Indians at my ...

Marvellous, George. I do hope the newscasters lied and actually failed the exam? I deeply admire your reasoned tolerance. But I am delighted to see that the irritation remains nonetheless. I am sure you are right in your analysis that verse is widespread and linked to age only, and lies across all t...

Interesting question, George. I think the answer is "Not strictly". The word is as the Good Dr says, pronounced sprook. But that is not sprook as in look, took, hook or book, all of which tend to have a shortened vowel sound (except in some regional areas of Britain); but as in spook, with a long oo...

A rather irritating modernism has crept in on this one. Certainly in Australia, possibly elsewhere as well, young people are using it as a verb in the form 'verse'. "We versed them last week". I guess the usage is simply a misunderstanding of the word and its origins. What galls me is that we have a...

Indeed, Dr G. Even without reference to your original report on Posh, I was confident in saying it was "often wrongly said to have come from..." Thanks for the endorsement! I should have concluded by saying that if it had been so derived, it might have been a backronym! Certainly that would have bee...

Pictures please, George!

Your first sentence is almost tautological, in my experience.

But what is the origin of this delightful word? There's something vaguely North American aboriginal about it. Is it from a native language?

Nice one, Audiendus. Very interesting. Curiously I spent the first seven years of my life in a street called Railway Approach (in Twickenham). I didn't know it was really an Avenue. Don't you hate those ridiculous computer programs that ask for the street name and want the word 'street' or whatever ...

Well, what a joy this word is. When we turn a real word with real meaning into an acronym, and then the whole world decides it started off as an acronym from which the original word was derived. Classic example is Posh which is often wrongly said to have come from the acronym derived from port out, ...

I will use this word next week. This word would appear to be rich with opportunities for metaphoric uses. Presumably you can have an ouroborotic argument that keeps going round and never ends because its premise can only be proved if the premise is correct - if you see what I mean. One that begs its...