Etymology: Louche & Orrery

Time to look at the new words I’ve come across recently.   Louche I read a book that described a man as being “louche”. The Google dictionary defines this to mean “disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way”. Louche was derived from Old French and Latin words referring …

New Word: Avuncular

I like noting new words as I come across them. “Avuncular” is one of those words that I thought I knew what it meant, and I was happy reading it, but when I thought about it, I realised actually I didn’t know precisely what it meant! The way to determine …

Words of Unusual Sizes

A while ago, @QuillWriters did a Tuesday Twitter game called Words of Unusual Sizes. I wanted to share some of the best words that people came up with: Long words: The longest place name in the UK: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Longest words with no repeated letters: Dermatoglyphics, Misconjugatedly, Uncopyrightables Name of a hill …

Etymology: Glaucous

I love learning new words when I read, and the word ‘glaucous’ was something new I came across recently. It means a dull grey-ish green or blue colour. It’s amazing how many new words for colours I pick up when writing or critiquing other people’s novels. If you are describing …

Etymology: Crepes & Pancakes

I used to have a food blog. Sometimes, I would discuss the origin of different ingredients or learn the difference between certain types of similar ingredients. The other day, I found myself wondering what the difference between crepes and pancakes is, if there is a difference at all. And as …