Hello, This week’s blog is a day late as I was away for the weekend, staying in a tiny castle, pictured below. It’s a gate lodge in Cork at Anne’s Grove, restored by the Irish Landmark Trust, and was the perfect spot to relax with Mr Wordfoolery. As it was built in the 1800s, it […]| Wordfoolery
Hello, As I type this morning I’m listening to heavy rain battering my somewhat bedraggled late October garden. Anybody outside right now is going to be drenched. Apparently that includes my …| Wordfoolery
Hello, This week’s word, bampot, is thanks to the Coliins “Scots Dictionary” which I’m enjoying reading at the moment. I wouldn’t say that I speak Scots but a surprising amount of the words and expressions are familiar and comprehensible to me thanks to my mother’s Ulster Scots heritage, my in-laws, and the general overlap with […]| Wordfoolery
Hello, Dote is one of those words where you really need the context to understand the meaning. For example, if an Irish person tells you that you’re a dote, please take the compliment. In Hiberno-English it means you are sweet or adorable. It could be used for a small child, or of a close friend, […]| Wordfoolery
Hello, This week’s word isn’t to be found in any mainstream dictionaries because it was coined by author John Koenig for his “Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows”. He wanted to fi…| Wordfoolery
Hello, I’ve no record of where I found this week’s word, aliferous. I scrolled at random in my (exceedingly long) word list and it popped out, seeking a story. Aliferous means having wings. You might describe an angel, bird, or butterfly in this way. Butterfly sprang to mind in my case as I recently visited […]| Wordfoolery
Hello, A friend asked me last week what writing I’m doing currently. I explained that I was supposed to be working on formatting “Words the Weather Gave Us” for proof printing but…| Wordfoolery
Hello, This week’s word, feisty, comes with thanks to “An Emotional Dictionary” by Susie Dent. I was surprised to learn from this excellent book that feisty has more to do with little dogs and farting than it does with the ever popular feisty female trope in fiction. I’m always wary of adjectives only used to […]| Wordfoolery
Hello, I’m enjoying season seven of “Outlander” on DVD at the moment and there’s much talk of traitors as most of this series is set during the American Revolution (1778 to …| Wordfoolery
Hello, It’s late August now and something is in the air – the back to school vibes. Dreaded by students and teachers alike and a busy time for them, as well as for parents buying supplies. Some schools (for teens) have already started back in my area but it will be another couple of weeks […]| Wordfoolery
Hello, If anything is in short supply, it’s important to eke it out until you can replenish supplies. This usually happens in my house on a Wednesday when my offspring stare into the fridge, …| Wordfoolery
Hello, This week’s word is ubiquity, with thanks to the teen I passed on my walk last week who claimed to her friend that somebody was ubiquitous. She reminded me how much I like this word. T…| Wordfoolery
Looking for my Media Kit? Try here. “Words Christmas Gave Us” (2024) unwraps the stories behind the season, via festive words from advent to yule and grinch to scurryfunge. This book, the third in …| Wordfoolery
