Category Archives: Words

Prepone

Posted on Monday, November 28, 2011 by Abhijit

“Prepone” is a word frequently used in Indian English. But a New York Times article was the first to use the word among all the examples given on the online Oxford English Dictionary. It says “prepone” is a transitive verb … Continue reading →

Posted in Words | Comments Off

Tin Pei Ling: Is she a youth?

Posted on Monday, April 18, 2011 by Abhijit

Tin Pei Ling is a young woman, but is she a youth? Tin, 27, the youngest election candidate fielded by Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party, said at a Young PAP rally, “I am young. I am a youth. But I … Continue reading →

Posted in Singapore, Words | 3 Comments

Word on words: Rentier, cruft

Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2011 by Abhijit

Like communism, the word rentier is on the wane. It’s declining in use in the English language, as you can see from this Google timeline chart. The use of the word peaked in the 1930s when communism was more popular. … Continue reading →

Posted in Words | Comments Off

29 new millennium words in OED

Posted on Saturday, April 2, 2011 by Abhijit

The online Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Latest Update page shows 175 new words added to the dictionary last month. You can see the full list below, which includes words such as dot-bomb, router, hentai, singlehood and Hindutva. However, many of … Continue reading →

Posted in Words | Comments Off

Don’t you heart the Oxford English Dictionary?

Posted on Monday, March 28, 2011 by Abhijit

Yes, it’s way over my budget, but thank goodness the Oxford English Dictionary can be accessed online from Singapore’s National Library website. So I could double-check what Johnson blogged on the Economist website. The ♥ is not yet in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Words | Comments Off

Word on words: Lustrum, clicktivism

Posted on Sunday, March 27, 2011 by Abhijit

I have been meaning to post about words and usage just to brush up my language. So here’s the first post, about two words I just came across on World Wide Words. The first is a rare one – lustrum. … Continue reading →

Posted in Words | Comments Off

A Singlish poem

Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 by Abhijit

I just came across this Singlish poem in an article that appeared in Salon way back in 2007. Wah! I heard we all now got big big debate.They said future of proper English is at stake. All because stupid Singlish … Continue reading →

Posted in Singapore, Words | Comments Off

Jan Morris on bad language

Posted on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 by Abhijit

It’s such a pleasure to see a piece by Jan Morris, one of my favourite writers.  She writes on The Decline of Cursing in the Wall Street Journal: Time has overtaken the vocabulary because it was based upon now unfashionable … Continue reading →

Posted in Words | Comments Off

How words get into the Oxford English Dictionary

Posted on Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Abhijit

I have seen the word "linguaphile" (meaning word lover or language lover) on Dictionary.com and the Free Dictionary, but it's not there in the Oxford English Dictionary. It no longer tries to be comprehensive. "The language is expanding so fast … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Words | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Words and the law and Humpty Dumpty

Posted on Friday, April 2, 2010 by Abhijit

With all due respect to the law, reports of the Singapore court proceedings that ended in the conviction of five opposition activists yesterday reminded me of the words of Humpty Dumpty. Tweet

Posted in Singapore, Words | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off