Language

Ankara wants the world to use its native language name – but there’s more than one problem with that

Younger people now tend to pronounce it Low-es-toft, but Low-st’f is historically accurate

The Conservative peer, defending the right to use racial epithets in the Spectator, has also been providing intellectual ballast to Restore's mass deportation plans

The strange journey of a word that dates back at least eight centuries

The days when one man could ban plays might have ended in 1968 – but now redaction is rife

Sometimes, new words are created when speakers swap sounds around in old ones

Shakespeare, for instance coined several new compound forms, such as lacklustre, eyesore and bedroom

The pet name Andy appeared in the 1920s – and became widespread from the 1980s

Some words have two unconnected meanings – others have simply drifted apart

Exploring sporting polysemy – the cases where a single word has several different, even if often related, meanings

The pleasure dome and sacred river were opium fantasies – but it was a place where the world met to trade

We’re getting footballer Haaland’s name wrong - and it originally had an å rather than a double A too

Its name comes from an indigenous North American language that requires a trick of the throat

The curious history of language purists hating ‘mongrel’ words

The president has put the islands’ fate back on the table – without asking the islanders

French Protestants came in search of religious freedom. Then the Glorious Revolution changed everything

The answer to a question about an old English grandma lies in Old English grammar

A cataract operation left me with pseudophakia – the happy condition of having an artificial lens

In countries like Britain with no strong baby naming traditions, Lily, Ivy and Elsie can disappear for decades before returning to popularity

Which syllables should be stressed is a cause of stress – so here’s a guide