English Language – Interesting Literature

The Meaning and Origin of ‘You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It’

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the origins of perhaps the greatest cake-based proverb in the English language

I remember being flummoxed by a number of well-known proverbs when I was very young. The first time I heard ‘a stitch in time saves nine’, I remember scratching my head and thinking, ‘What? A stitch in time saves nine what? Nine lives?’

And then, perhaps because I’d spent too long reading speculative science-fiction novels, I thought ‘stitch in time’ was some elaborate operation performed upon the fabric of time, perhaps to open up a wormhole into the deep future or the past.

The Meaning and Origin of ‘Procrastination is the Thief of Time’

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the meaning of a famous proverb – and its origins in a work of literature

‘Procrastination is the thief of time’. It’s perhaps one of the best-known proverbs in the English language, and as with most proverbs, the temptation is to ascribe it to that prolific author, ‘Anon.’ But as with another favourite axiom, ‘better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’, ‘procrastination is the thief of time’ appears to have a very decisive origin in the work of a particular writer.

A Summary and Analysis of George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Politics and the English Language’ (1946) is one of the best-known essays by George Orwell (1903-50). As its title suggests, Orwell identifies a link between the (degraded) English language of his time and the degraded political situation: Orwell sees modern discourse (especially political discourse) as being less a matter of words chosen for their clear meanings than a series of stock phrases slung together.

The Meaning and Origin of the Phrase ‘All That Glitters Is Not Gold’

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the meaning – and literary origins – of a well-known phrase

‘All that glitters is not gold’. Who gave us that famous expression? William Shakespeare? Thomas Gray? That prolific but elusive author, ‘Anon’?

The Mysterious Origins of the Word ‘Posh’

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the obscure and mysterious history of a now ubiquitous word

If you’re sitting comfortably, how about a quick round of the Interesting Literature Friday Night Quiz of Doom? Well, all right, just a single quiz question. Ready?