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David Crystal

The Story of English in 100 Words

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  • Arina Spiridonovahas quoted9 years ago
    Google was launched in September 1998 (see§77). People were googling by the end of the year
  • Arina Spiridonovahas quoted9 years ago
    And because of the way English has travelled the world, courtesy of its soldiers, sailors, traders and civil servants, several hundred languages have contributed to its lexical character. Some 80 per cent of English vocabulary is not Germanic at all.
  • Arina Spiridonovahas quoted9 years ago
    English is a vacuum-cleaner of a language, whose users suck in words from other languages whenever they encounter them.
  • Bazulin Andreyhas quoted7 years ago
    And people tried out fresh combinations. ‘A gaggle of geese?’ ‘What about a gaggle of women?’ ‘Write that down, Brother John.’ He did. A gaggle of women is recorded in a book written around 1470. An early sexist joke.
  • Elena Tyaniginahas quoted7 years ago
    it’s raining cats and dogs
  • Elena Tyaniginahas quoted7 years ago
    Its strength, to apply an old metaphor, is that readers obtain a clear view of the wood; its weakness is that they see very few of the trees.
  • Elena Tyaniginahas quoted7 years ago
    There seem to be two main ways.
  • tristatestigmahas quoted8 years ago
    Any testimonial for a book, on front or back covers, was soon being called a blurb.
  • tristatestigmahas quoted8 years ago
    It’s never obvious how to spell the invented forms we use to talk about an object whose name we don’t know. Fortunately it isn’t a problem, most of the time, because these nonsense words are usually used only when we speak. ‘Where’s the doobry?’ someone might say, looking for the gadget which controls the television.
  • tristatestigmahas quoted8 years ago
    There is now an internet site called the Institution of Silly and Meaningless Sayings: ISMS.
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