Modern life can be so busy and serious. We work long hours during the week and spend the weekends doing housework or chasing around after children or family. We do need to stop, relax and even do some frivolous things. It might seem like a strange thing to suggest but we should look to the lark to inspire us. The lark is found all over the…

This year marks the bicentenary of Edward Lear’s birth in 1812 (he died in 1888). He is most famous for his comic verse for children of which many were limericks. However, Lear never called his verse limericks as the word was first used after his death. No one is quite sure where it comes from.

Limericks are…

William Lewis Safire (17 December 1929 – 27 September 2009) was an American author, presidential speechwriter, and political columnist for the New York Times. He started his career in public relations in 1955 and while working for Richard Nixon, set up the famous "Kitchen Debate” in Moscow in 1959 between Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev.…

A swashbuckler is a brave and flamboyant person that engages in daring and romantic adventures. We have always loved best our film swashbucklers who fight evil, endlessly rescue their significant others and save their less brave compatriots from certain death with lots of derring-do.

Even though we should recognise all…

One of the great attractions of being a scientist is that, like the early explorers, you get to name what you discover.

As a student I was excited when our lecturer announced they had found a 10 metre long fossil python at Riversleigh, Queensland, and it had been called  Montypythonoides…

Ambrose Everett Burnside (23 May 1824–13 September 1881) was a Union Army general in the American Civil War. His early campaigns were successful but his forces were heavily defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of the Crater, earning him the reputation as one of the most incompetent generals of the war. His military reputation was one of being…

It is Australia Day this week so I have chosen a most Australian word as the word of the week. If you get called a drongo it is likely you have done something rather unintelligent in front of your mates. Drongo is a uniquely Australian, mild form of insult, defining a person’s wit as being at a level only slightly cleverer than idiot.

The word drongo originates as…

We love the word bogan. We use it to describe those uncouth people that live next door. No longer are we restricted by geography to call the uneducated, unrefined people, westies (if you live in Sydney, for instance)—our vulgar neighbours can now come from the east, the north or the south.

The word bogan has given us—the usually egalitarian Australians—a word to help us gain social…

Petard is a word that survives in the modern world entirely in the expression hoist with his own petard, which means someone fails because of their own plans or because of their own deviousness. It is usually understood that its literal meaning is to be blown up with your own bomb. But there is a far more comical interpretation.…

Ed: A ball calling for a very big foot.

Now, while the Rugby World Cup is dominating the world’s sporting news, we must use the opportunity to wrest back the word football from our soccer rivals. Soccer (Association…

This post might be useful to you if you are searching for a rhyme but it will also help you to get an inkling of the wonderful way English adopts words from other languages and from local dialects when it has a need.

I was thinking about hullabaloo as my word of the week. When I tried to guess its origin I found that I was completely wrong—it is a native to England and Scotland. I had thought that all words ending in -oo must come…

I am not incinerating [sic] that any of you lack the consecration…

Hack is a common word in English that has had a bit of a working out the last few weeks. It has an interesting history. There are really two sources of hack which explains the broad uses of the word, including one describing certain types of writers and poets. This week's story is presented as an infographic.

For more …

Above: Sunfish in the epipelagic zone (Flickr:  Hiroto Kitagawa). Below: Sunfish side on.

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Carbon is a non-metallic element that makes up less than one per cent of the earth’s crust and 100 per cent of the Australian political debate.

Much of the world’s carbon is contained in coal that was created during the Carboniferous Period from 360 to 300 million years…

Choosing the right partner for your life journey can help you to achieve great things and to realise your full potential. Unfortunately choosing the wrong partner can drag you down and stop you achieving your promise. Unfortunately the pairing of dulcet and tones has not been a beneficial choice for the…

I have been wondering why the English are so fond of chariots. Chariots are a recurring theme in English identity and in their rugby songs. They even made a film called after them. What is it all about?

Chariot is a relatively recent word. It originates in 14^th century French as an extension of…

Stadia versus stadiums

This week more FIFA executives are denying corruption charges; the awarding of the 2022 FIFA Soccer World Cup to Qatar (which Australia had tried to bid for) is again being questioned; and Sepp Blatter (pictured), the man in charge, was re-elected unopposed as FIFA…

Bumf is an informal word used to describe, in a slightly derogatory way, the superfluous or unnecessary paper documents that fill our everyday life such as forms, Government documents, publicity material, junk mail etcetera.

Now if you are gentile and don’t like crudity be aware that this fascinating…