Whenever anyone over 40 complains that the English language is gradually being manipulated, mauled and mangled – mostly by the nation on the other side of the Atlantic we supposedly have a ‘special relationship’ with, we get accused of being dinosaurs.
Talking of extinct animals, reminded me of that recent news item about the worm brought back to life after being stuck in the Siberian permafrost for 46,000 years!
Pound to a penny, I bet he didn’t recognise the place after all that time.
It’s an astonishing story, but I have it on no authority whatsoever from a totally unreliable source that, sadly, the worm didn’t live very long after it was revived.
Someone left a laboratory window open, a hungry crow that’d been awake since four in the morning flew in…and devoured it.
If you recognised that convoluted reference to an old saying, give yourself a round of applause.
Many terms used in modern technology are just updated twists on words that have long existed in the English language
Some 50 years ago, if you were a kid with a blue tooth, your mother would panic and make an immediate appointment with the dentist.
A hard drive was a long, tiring, car journey from Llanelli to Llandudno.
And ‘E mail’ was what people in the North of England used to exclaim when the morning post dropped on the hall carpet.
There’s an annoying new word I read about, invented by some smart Alec with no respect for the English language.
“Phubbing”.
No, it doesn’t refer to doing the rounds of your local boozers.
An excruciating mash-up of ‘Phone’ & ‘Snubbing’ it refers to the appalling habit adopted by a large number of people today of looking at or ‘fiddling with’ their ‘phones rather than interact with and communicate with their loved ones…who are in the same room as them!
It’s called ‘Phubbing’ today, but there’s a more appropriate word with the exact same meaning that’s been in use in the English language for centuries – ignorance.
Me? A dinosaur?
Just call me T Rex and mind the swish of my scaly tail.