Language

The Reformer’s absurd logic could disallow Cumbrians and the Cornish – and let in the Bretons

The flailing president’s ludicrous name change has an embarrassing linguistic twist

Sometimes, the least likely explanation in etymology turns out to be the one that’s true

The hopeful are full of hope, the graceful show grace – but the bashful aren’t full of bash

The leader of the Green Party has got perhaps the worst French accent I’ve ever heard. But the reaction to his two recent campaign videos is very telling

The search for Arthur’s kingdom may have sent generations of historians looking in the wrong direction

There are three contenders, but none of them are official

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