Tag archives: politics

Totes amazing new words added to our online dictionary – obvs

Walking around in your leopard-print onesie while proudly sporting guyliner may lead to some guffaws and eye-rolling among family and friends, but whatevs! You know you’re totes on trend. The above sentence contains just some of the new words and terms added to Oxford Dictionaries Online in our latest update which covers a whole range [...]

Posted on: May 24 2012 | Comments: 12 | Categories: Dictionaries and lexicography, Word trends and new words | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The changing meaning of ‘socialist’

On May 6, France held their presidential elections, picking François Hollande over the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande is a socialist (a member of the French Socialist Party), a word that on occasion apparently confuses a large number of Americans, as many use it in a manner that is perhaps inconsistent with its intended meaning. Hence, a [...]

Posted on: May 22 2012 | Posted by: | Comments: 2 | Categories: Dictionaries and lexicography, English in use | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

‘If you want anything said, ask Mrs Thatcher’

In May 1979 the United Kingdom elected its first female Prime Minister, in spite of her own comment ten years earlier: ‘No woman in my time will be Prime Minister or Chancellor or Foreign Secretary—not the top jobs. Anyway I wouldn’t want to be Prime Minister. You have to give yourself 100%’. A few years [...]

Posted on: May 4 2012 | Posted by: | Comments: 0 | Categories: English in use | Tags: , , , , , , ,

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