Which reminds me of the lustrum which was the five-year period between the lustrations - the purification/expiation sacrifices -associated with the census in ancient Rome. And also, of course, the title of Robert Harris's second Cicero novel.

Well,now I know! And, thanks to a friend from Indiana, I also know what a Hoosier is. Any other funny regional names from the US that anyone would care to share? We in Australia have a couple: Queenslanders (like me) are Bananabenders and Western Australians are Sandgropers.

I came across this word in a (not very good) translation of Nikos Katzanzakis' Christ Recrucified. I had to scuttle to the OED to discover what the translator meant by 'her farded lips' (I don't have a copy of the book in Greek. It would be interesting to know what the phrase was in the original). F...

Good heavens, no, Dr Goodword, I think that gratitude for this little gem should be compulsory!

So many lovely other uses for this word: we in Australia use the term 'grub' to describe a truly objectionable character (often applied to politicians, especially by each other). And, of course, many folk happily grub about in their gardens at weekends, which usually results in grubby hands. And hea...

Kairos ( καιρός) is also the modern Greek word for weather, time and season; whether the weather, the time or season is perfect, opportune or propitious for something, the word does not convey.

Don't forget the other meaning of supine (OED):
"failing to act or protest as a result of moral weakness or indolence". Often (justifiably) used of governments and/or politicians.

My husband's family, from the north of England, have the following idiosyncratic use for hogwash (albeit with slightly different spelling): many years ago, there was a boy of their acquaintance called Maurice Hogg. Now, Maurice had the reputation for being not very clean (a Tyneside version of Charl...

There is, or used to be, a minor controversy about what the dying Admiral Nelson is supposed to have said to Captain Thomas Hardy after the Battle of Trafalger (1805). Mortally wounded, and being supported by Hardy, Nelson reportedly said, "Kiss me, Hardy." This was later bowdlerised - in ...

It would be too sad if osculation were to result in oscitancy or, indeed, pandiculation.

I found this lovely word in Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child. How exciting it is to find a word with which one is unfamiliar!

Does anyone remember that old hippy saying: Hey, man, my karma just ran over my dogma

A cult whose members think that chocolate can save the world? Now that's one I could believe in and would join!

Also easy to confuse with colander.

Glad to have the issue of typhoons and hurricanes cleared up, but in Australia such weather events are always called cyclones, or am I incorrect in assuming that cyclones are the same as typhoons and hurricanes?