For Fans of Fonts

A charming and clever little history of typography done with paper cutouts - worth watching!

“Omnishambles” - OED's Word of the Year

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2012 ‘omnishambles’

It's actually a neologism which was first used a few years ago in the British political comedy, The Thick of It. It became popular this year when it was uttered in a speech by a Labour Leader in the British House of Commons. It basically means a situation characterized by complete and utter disorder ('omni' meaning all and shambles meaning, of course, a mess). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) selected "omnishambles" as the British English Word of the Year 2012 (WOTY) today, and chose "gif" as the American English WOTY. Gif, of course, is the image format Graphic Interchange Format. Gif has been around for a long time, but only just made it to WOTY status today. There are other WOTYs designated by different language organizations, but the OED probably has the greatest influence.

The British are Coming! And It's Simply Bril!

A nice cup of tea.
Photo by Laurel F., Wikimedia Commons

It's hard to know exactly why, but Americans are using more and more Britishisms in their daily vocabulary. My feeling is that in recent years there have been so many books and movies out by British authors, such as J K Rowling with the Harry Potter series, not to mention the Lord of the Rings movies, that young Americans have become quite enamored of all things British. Americans have lways had a streak of Anglophilia in their makeup and popular literature and media have reinforced that. The NYT examines this interesting mini-phenomenon and lists several Britishisms in current vogue, such as  "cheers,"  "brilliant," and "loo." To many ears, it may sound a bit out of place or odd, but really the distance between England and the US gets smaller all the time. Going across the pond today can often be cheap and easy!  Ben Yagoda has done a nice job of compiling some common and fun Britishisms on his blog. Try a few out and see whether it makes you feel super dashing or just supercilious :)