We may enjoy freedom of speech, but when dealing with certain subjects - for instance death, poverty, physical appearance - we are rarely free to express ourselves directly. Personal shame, the frailt...
Did you know that 'flavour of the month' originated in a marketing campaign in American ice-cream parlours in the 1940s, when a particular flavour would be specially promoted for a month at a time? An...
Take a fascinating journey from cornflakes (1907) to spam (1994). This vivid picture of the last 105 years is based on John Ayto's critically acclaimed "Twentieth Century Words", and gives a selection...
From ambulance chaser to zoot suit, this is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of twentieth-century slang. Drawing on the resources of the Oxford English Dictionary, and packed with illu...
Our longstanding love affair with the undignified bits of our language - the unguarded vocabulary of conversation, the quirky slang of in-groups, the colourful outbursts of lexis in extremis - has ass...
There is a great deal in 'Stone the Crows' that will amuse and intrigue browsers.