Boston High School English Language Twitter feed - articles, news and updates for A-Level students.
Boston, England
Joined February 2016
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BHS English Language retweeted
The latest iteration of the Oxford Game: TOAST! 🍞 This one was very satisfying. Like toast is.
Thanks to the @OED for sponsoring the show and making these fun videos.
QUESTION: Are the words TOAST (speech) and TOAST (bread) etymologically related?
Here's what @becauselangpod co-hosts Ben Ainsley and @Laserhedvig think... but do you agree?
Listen to the full episode to discover the answer 👉 becauselanguage.com/62-langu…
BHS English Language retweeted
Capital and non-capital letters are known as UPPERCASE and LOWERCASE because printers would typically keep the two sets in separate trays or ‘type cases’, with the capital letters stored above the smaller ones.
BHS English Language retweeted
BERGAMOT, the fruit used to flavour Earl Grey tea, takes its name from the city of Bergamo in Italy.
MILLINERY takes its name from Milan.
TARANTULAS take their name from Taranto.
CANTALOUPE melons take their name from Cantalupo.
LEGHORN chickens take their name from Livorno.
BHS English Language retweeted
The W in TWO hasn’t always been silent. It was pronounced in the Old English name for the number 2, ‘twa’—and remains in place in derivatives like TWIN, TWAIN and TWENTY (which literally means ‘two sets of ten’).
BHS English Language retweeted
In Victorian slang, a TUCK-HUNTER was someone who was always on the lookout for food.
BHS English Language retweeted
A decorative flourishing line often written below a signature or at the bottom of a page of text is called a PARAPH.
BHS English Language retweeted
Unwrap, untie, unravel. In his latest blog installment, Edwin Battistella (@literaryashland) helps us to understand the linguistic depths of un-, and explains why it can be both a verb and an adjective. bit.ly/350pqpF
BHS English Language retweeted
GRAMMAR once referred to all learning, not just the rules of language, and at one time encompassed astrology, magic and the occult too. In that sense, the word ‘grammar’ later changed into GLAMOUR—and ultimately gave us a term for anything similarly captivating or enchanting.
BHS English Language retweeted
Introduced in 1992, the EXCLAMATION COMMA and the QUESTION COMMA were meant as alternatives to ordinary exclamation and question marks that could be used part way through a sentence, without having to end it.
BHS English Language retweeted
According to the English Dialect Dictionary, a ball of snow made steadily larger by rolling it through a snowfield is called a HOGAMADOG.
BHS English Language retweeted
HUNDSLAPPADRÍFA is an Icelandic word for especially heavy snowfall. It literally means ‘snowflakes as large as dogs’ paws’.
BHS English Language retweeted
(This is why you can frank a letter and be disenfranchised as well.)
BHS English Language retweeted
MAZE originally meant ‘delirium’ or ‘confusion’—while to be AMAZED originally meant to be bewildered or stupefied by something overwhelming. The puzzles were so called because they were intended to confuse anyone trying to solve them.
BHS English Language retweeted
The headmaster of this grammar school isn't too keen on my work on language policing in schools. The 'verbal tic' of 'like' is his 'bête noire', and the 'slang bell' reminds me a little of the Welsh Not, used in schools to label and stigmatise kids for speaking in certain ways.
