This has become one of my favourite words. It features prominently in one of the sketches in the BBC comedy show Little Britain (you may fancy watching this clip of the local dialect where I live, overdone of course): "What a kerfuffle?" Kerfuffle is quite a funny word; it generally means ...

For some reason my document folders are foolscap, but that's because they fit my filing cabinet very nicely. All the documents are in metrical paper formats, mostly A4 and A5. The B-series is the geometric mean between subsequent sheets in the A-series (i.e. the magnification factor between A4 and B...

I think BD managed to drive a coach and horses through my definition: thanks, Dude. Camp usually means in British English that a man exhibits obviously homosexual mannerisms. Of course, such mannerisms are as much part of the sub-culture as anything else. Thus, someone who might be considered to be ...

Flam, I think my comment was designed not to make sense, or at least be a little cryptic. Sometimes, you see, some things just sound wrong. This doesn't mean that they ar wrong, but it's an instintual bell that rings in one's heart that, rather than going dong like the bell of a monastery on some re...

I'm constantly amazed with things like that language lab, that prove that we don't speak the same language at all... :lol: -Tim I managed to score 10/10 on the language lab accents and languages quiz, but that was pretty hard going. My sister managed 8/10, but she didn't tell me which ones she had ...

I'm not sure how one would drop Lichtenberg ratio into conversation. However, saying that, I'm not sure how I'd drop many of these silly words into conversations. I really don't like it when someone sends me an e-mail attachment in MSWord (where's my bug spray?!), set up for US letter size paper wit...

The website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/) has lots of fun things about accents. You might like to try out the Language Lab's test on regional British accents.

I think I should say thank-you, Flam, but I'm not entirely sure what kind of service you're offering! However, your Where did you see it last? did make me remember that many things that I had heard on the radio whilst driving to and from work had been at the root of my tongue-tipping exasperation. I...

Actually, you have to try very hard in British English not to make the word camp be a referrence to male homosexuality. To say that someone was not camp implies that he is gay but doesn't act it; to say that someone is camp implies that he acts as if he's gay, but may or may not be so. -- Garzo.

I don't know how many times in the last week I've said to myself, "Isn't that interesting: I'll have to ask the fellas in the Agora about that." However, by the time I get to a terminal, it's gone: all those interesting factoids and questions have evaporated. What can I do? Please help me!...

A friend sent me this: The food that I share with others Is the food that nourishes me. The strength I spend for others Is the strength that I retain. The freedom I seek for others Will make me forever free. The pain I ease in others Works to take away my pain. The affront I forgive in others By GRA...

The traditional English marriage vows end with the word troth . There is a slight difference between the sexes that I cannot quite figure out. The bridegroom says: ...and thereto I plight thee my troth. The bride says: ...and thereto I give thee my troth. I wonder if this is because the pledge of tr...

I spoke with a bus driver last week, and when I asked him if he drove busses, he replied that he only drove one at a time!

-- Garzo.

'Groin-murder' -- nuf said!

yupidid!