I cannot claim to have had a lifelong fascination with words. In the past I tended to look upon them as a collection of letters, albeit often a bewitching assemblage depending on the skill of the scribe, flitting across paper or a screen. That of course was before blogging. Once I started to write Just Add Attitude I became more conscious of the way I used words and acutely aware of how many words I simply didn’t know the meaning of and that there were, most likely, many thousands of words that I had never come across. So, I began a quest for a greater command of the language which has become a three-pronged tactic. I am aware that makes it sound like a very deliberate strategy but in truth it is just a way of trying to increase my vocabulary that has evolved in a very natural fashion.
Tag Archives: Words
Words
Filed under Musings
Lost in Translation
George Bernard Shaw described America and England as two countries separated by a common language. Perhaps because he was Irish he didn’t delve into the differences between English as spoken in Ireland and English as spoken in the rest of the Anglophone world. I was reminded of one of the differences when I saw the ‘KEEP GOING SURE IT’S GRAND’ poster in the Irish Design Shop before Christmas. Here in Ireland we pepper our everyday conservation with words or phrases that are probably incomprehensible to visitors to these shores. Here’s a small selection.
Filed under Musings
Just Add Attitude 