Buttering Parsnips, Twocking Chavs

Welcome to the fascinating world of words - an exploration

of the exciting 'nooks and crannies' of the vocabulary of the

English language. Can you think of words with five or six consecutive consonants? What is the origin of chortle, cloud cuckoo land, and the origin of many different kinds of slang?

Many of us have to listen to estate agents' sales patter: 'a

bijou [crammed] kitchen', 'a mature [overgrown] garden'. We hear on the phone someone will be with you shortly' but are kept waiting for hours. We may read in foreign hotels 'Here speeching American', 'Please to bathe inside the tub'

Here you will learn more about homophones (right, rite,

and write) and spoonerisms (a well-boiled icicle), not forgetting

famous last words ('either that wallpaper goes, or I do'). Then there are words in other languages that have no exact English equivalent, such as puijilittatuÄ… (Inuktit, Canada) 'he does not know which way to turn because of the many seals he has seen come to the ice surface

So, word buffs - in a word -enjoy, be enraptured, gorge on

this veritable cornucopia of surprising and delightful words!

Martin H. Manser David Pickering