We've been thinking about the data cloud in the Lounge these days. "What data cloud?" you may ask, and well that you should: it's a term relatively new to English and it hasn't yet settled down to a single fixed meaning. The data cloud we've been thinking about is the Big One: the nebulous dataset consisting of all the data that is, in principle, at your fingertips when they are poised above an Internet-connected keyboard.  Continue reading...

Do you feel called upon to justify the activity of reading the dictionary? Seek no further! This month we visit a poet who whiled away many hours with her eyes glued to the fine print, and ended up having quite a lot to show for it.  Continue reading...

This month in the Lounge we examine a common cause of Language indigestion and show the way to lasting relief.  Continue reading...

They say that breaking up is hard to do, but English words seem to have just as hard a time of it forming stable relationships. This month in the Lounge we examine recent trends.  Continue reading...

"How do I get my word in the dictionary?" This is a question that lexicographers in the Lounge and elsewhere are asked more often than you might expect. While it might be unkind to characterize the sort of person who asks the question, we hope it will be instructive to describe how new words actually make their way into dictionaries. That, in turn, should reveal why there are probably many better things to do in life than getting one's word in the dictionary. By doing some of them, you might get your word in anyway.  Continue reading...

That extra bit of dust floating about this month is from some venerable old tomes we pulled down from the Lounge library shelves to investigate a word pattern brought to our attention by a Lounge visitor. We hope that he will find the results of our investigation... splendid!  Continue reading...

This month we sweep away the cobwebs in the Poetry Corner to spend some time with a poem just over a hundred years old that still speaks loud and clear today.  Continue reading...