Susie Dent Quotes

Susie Dent
Susie Dent
English Scientist
Day Language People Word Words You
Related authors: Ashley Montagu Charles Darwin Erasmus Darwin Jacob Bronowski Jane Goodall Matthew Walker Richard Dawkins Thomas Huxley
There is an art to eavesdropping, but I think to some extent we are all guilty of picking up those little odds and ends that can be quite intriguing if you analyse them. Susie Dent
Art You Eavesdropping Odds Think Analyse Those Guilty Intriguing Some Picking Up Quite Ends Little Them Extent
Slang moves on so fast that most new words disappear soon after they are coined. But there is always something that sticks behind. Susie Dent
Words Something Disappear Soon New Most Sticks Always Behind Moves After Fast Slang
The extraordinary thing about new words is that probably only about one per cent of them are new. Most are old words revived and adapted. Susie Dent
Words Old Extraordinary Per About Only New Most Revived Cent Them Thing Adapted
If a term becomes too popular, its irritant value is ramped up. The impulse is then to replace it with something else. Susie Dent
Value Too Else Something Something Else Term Becomes Up Replace Impulse Irritant Then Popular
I work with the Oxford Dictionary databases, which sounds really boring, but they're actually fascinating as they show you how current words are being used. Susie Dent
Work You Words Boring Databases How Sounds Dictionary Current Oxford Being Which Really Used Show Being Used Fascinating Actually
Language is essentially tribal, so jargon can actually be a really good thing because it unites people. Susie Dent
Good People Language Tribal Good Thing Because Essentially Jargon Really Actually Thing Unites
New words travel from one variety of English to another and at a rapidly increasing rate, thanks to the way language is exchanged today over e-mail, chat rooms, TV, etc. Susie Dent
Today Travel Words Language Thanks Increasing Way TV Rapidly Rate Variety Chat Over New Another Etc Rooms English
Slang has different functions: many of the words we use are playful and a lot are tribal - we speak the same way as the groups we are part of. A great deal are also euphemistic, so it's no surprise that a third of us are perplexed by their meanings and origins. Susie Dent
Great Words Speak Great Deal Tribal Way Part Also Deal Surprise Perplexed Lot Same Different Us Meanings Use Many Groups Functions Origins Slang Playful Third
I remember as a child of five or six lying in the bath marvelling at the different languages displayed on the shampoo bottles around me. From that moment on it was always words not numbers that held a fascination for me. Susie Dent
Me Words Remember Lying Bath Shampoo Bottles Around Always Five Child Six Different Held Languages Moment Fascination Displayed Numbers
I'm an Arsenal fan and an even bigger Arsene fan. Susie Dent
Arsenal Fan Bigger Even
Above all, Jane Goodall continues to teach us that, as humans, we are no more entitled to our glorious planet than the chimps she so lovingly protects. Susie Dent
Entitled Glorious Our Above More She Protects Than Jane Lovingly Us Planet Teach Humans
Youthquake' wasn't an entirely predictable choice for Oxford's Word of 2017. It hasn't been on the lips of an entire nation, nor is it new. But it amply fulfilled the criteria Oxford requires for selection. Susie Dent
Word Nation Criteria Entire Entirely Selection New Been Nor Lips Oxford Predictable Choice Fulfilled Requires
I'm not a brazen extrovert, but I'm not as blushing or demure as people might think. Susie Dent
People Think Extrovert Brazen Blushing Might
Can I get a mochaccino?': a statement that, for many, is worse than any number of nails down a blackboard. Not on account of the coffee - most of us drink Ventis aplenty these days - rather it's the 'can I get?' - three words that regularly top the list of British bugbears. Susie Dent
Words Coffee Three Down Top Statement Worse Rather Drink Nails Days Most Account Than Get List Any Us Regularly Many Number British
In all my years in 'Countdown's' Dictionary Corner, the subject most guaranteed to rankle with our viewers is the presence of Americanisms in the dictionary. Susie Dent
Corner Our Most Years Subject Dictionary Viewers Presence Guaranteed
I love American English, not least because a lot of it was ours to begin with. Indeed, many Americanisms can be found in the works of William Shakespeare. Susie Dent
Love Indeed William Ours Shakespeare Because Least Lot Begin American English Many Works Found
From the start, English has happily absorbed words from every tongue it's encountered. Susie Dent
Words Every Absorb Encountered Happily English Start Tongue
The enduring image I will keep of Jane Goodall is of her emotional goodbye to a chimp she had rescued and nurtured, on the day of the animal's release. Susie Dent
Day Animal Will Nurtured Release Emotional Had Goodbye She Enduring Jane Rescued Keep Her Image
What I've discovered is that from football fans to undertakers, secret agents to marble-players and politicians, we all are part of at least one tribe. By tribes, I'm talking anthropologically; these groups are determined less by genes and more by the work they do or the passions they pursue. Susie Dent
Work Fans Politicians Secret Tribe Tribes At Least One Determined More Pursue Football Part Genes Talking Least Passions Discovered Agents Less Groups
The earliest dictionaries were collections of criminal slang, swapped amongst ne'er-do-wells as a means of evading the authorities or indeed any outsider who might threaten the trade. Susie Dent
Criminal Indeed Collections Threaten Outsider Trade Were Dictionaries Authorities Any Might Means Who Slang Amongst Earliest
Booze' was once a popular term in the slang or 'cant' of the criminal underworld, which may explain its rebellious overtones today. Susie Dent
Today Criminal Once Booze Term Underworld May Which Cant Explain Popular Rebellious Slang
Bizarrely, our English word 'sturdy' may go back to the Latin turdus, thrush. Anyone described as 'sturdy' in the 1200s was wilfully reckless and possibly as immovable as a sozzled bird. Susie Dent
Word Bird Back Our Reckless Latin Possibly Immovable Go May Anyone English
The notion of 'Queen's English' is usually applied to our pronunciation. Susie Dent
Queen Our Notion English Applied
In the middle of the 20th century, aspirations to sound 'proper' were passionately pursued. Dictionaries as late as the Seventies include many pronunciations that could cut the proverbial glass. Susie Dent
Late Seventies Proper Could Pursued Glass Sound Passionately Proverbial Were Dictionaries Middle Century Cut Aspirations Many Include
Probably my favourite winter-word of all. Apricity is the warmth of the sun on a chilly day. Susie Dent
Day Sun Favourite Chilly Warmth
When eyeliner was introduced in the Twenties by Max Factor, a pioneer of Hollywood film cosmetics who began selling to the public, even the word 'makeup' was a revelation. Susie Dent
Word Introduced Cosmetics Factor Makeup Revelation Began Selling Pioneer Max Public Hollywood Who Twenties Even Film
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