It’s practically our national swearword – but what do we mean when we say ‘feck’? And where did it come from? Stan Carey explains. (Contains strong language)
Continuing our summer series on TheJournal.ie of public figures’ favourite speeches, Leo Varadkar picks one of the most famous speeches ever made by a US president.
Continuing our summer series on TheJournal.ie of public figures’ favourite speeches, Jonathan Irwin picks a speech by a former Senator who was influential during the Northern Ireland peace process.
Continuing our summer series on TheJournal.ie of public figures’ favourite speeches, Fergus Finlay picks a speech by one of Ireland’s most famous trade union leaders.
Continuing a summer series on TheJournal.ie of public figures’ favourite speeches, Declan Ganley picks a stirring speech made by Winston Churchill in 1940.
Continuing our summer series on TheJournal.ie of public figures’ favourite speeches, Martin McGuinness picks perhaps the most famous speech of all time.
Some media experts say the abbreviation for ‘bitch’ may be satirical and reclaiming the word – but some feel it is polarising and an attention-grabbing move.
IT WAS the sound that dominated the world cup but only last year many of us had no idea what a vuvuzela was.
Now the word, along with 2,000 others has made it into the third edition Oxford Dictionary of English, which is published today.
Other new words to make it in the dictionary include cheeseball (something that lacks taste or style) and turducken – a roast dish that consists of chicken inside a duck inside a turkey.
The internet has coined quite a few words with paywall, microblogging, netbook and biral have all been added to the dictionary in recent years. The financial crisis has also thrown up a few previously unheard of words. Toxic debt, deleveraging (reducing debt by quickly selling assets), quantitative easing and staycation are now in common parlance.
Oxford adds words based on their usage and it is the first dictionary to do so.
Last week some of the words that didn’t make the cut were revealed. Words such as wurfing (searching the net while as work) and earworm (a catchy tune that frequently gets stuck in your head)
Other new entries are :
wardrobe malfunction : when someone exposes an intimate part of their body after clothing slips;
chill pill: a notional pill to make someone calm;
bromance : a close but non-sexual relationship between two men;
LBD (little black dress). This refers to the simple evening or cocktail dress that, it is claimed, should be part of every womans wardrobe; and
frenemy : a person that one is friendly with despite a fundamental dislike.
