Ah fair enough. I suspect the reason that I can to assume such a connection is because the curmudgeons that disapprove of the teenage lexicon usually ascribe its origins to the supposedly corruptive influence of American culture.

Good word.

Aye, laddie; some o' us provincials are not as au courant as our progenitors on that wee sma' isle off o' the coast o' Pas-de-Calais. :wink: 'Aye', 'laddie' 'wee' and 'o'' are all Scottish expressions I'm afraid. Well some are used in North England. The Scots, Northern English and Southern American...

I was always told in originated in Canada among lumberjacks. As logs flowed down the river they became stuck and so were 'at loggerheads'.

Probably folk etymology though.

Is that replacing the oft-said "Brilliant"? mark like-'groovy'-was-here-in-the-60's Bailey In a manner... it is more a replacement for the now outmoded 'wicked'. 'I've got some fags here', 'Ah, safe'. Prominently displayed on a new - selfconsciously modern - show called 'Skins'. The posh ...

The latest slang word that has been gaining currency among secondary schoolers in the last year of or so is 'safe', as in 'that's safe', or great. Is that an American invention?

Gosh, I thought that you had caught me in a redundancy, just when we were discussing grammar. But no, a look at the original shows that you either retyped my sentence, or somehow the closing bracket in the original post got changed to the letter "I". (Ay yai yai.) Ah yes, I didn't notice ...

I remember this word being used in Gibbon's book too.

Perry, Ferrus knew; he was just wanting to say

Sequel[, i]tself a good word only because there is so much more to sequels than execrable films and books.

mark on-a-lower-frequency Bailey

Mea culpa..

I Like many Americans, I know what is correct usage Grammar has all but disappeared from the UK education system, partially because it was felt to be 'elitist'. Some universities attempt to rectify the matter but usually in a perfunctory fashion. A response to more descriptive linguistic theories, ...

Yes, I have been told that the best means to improve your grammar is learning linguistics and understanding all parts of speech.

Apparently my 'penchant for using florid diction is not matched by my attention to grammar'. Any suggestions as to how I might go about improving my grammar? There seem few books or websites that deal with the topic systematically. Or at least is there a place that explains the grammatical and lingu...

The word is close to 'consquence' but not quite the same. The best synonym is the secondary meaning of sequel. Itself a good word only because there is so much more to sequels than execrable films and books.

I concur.

'Soze' as a shortening of 'sorry' I do know, but it is usually rendered 'soz'. Ah jis' cannae mak' heid nor tail oh it iva. 'I can't make head nor tail of it' is a common expression in England too, is it used in America? Today, with swearing being the "norm" Norm is actually a perfectly we...