Interesting facts about the classic nonsense poem, ‘Jabberwocky’ 1. The poem ‘Jabberwocky’ gave us a number of new words which are now in pretty common use. The most famous of these is ‘chortle’, a kind of laugh that is a blend of a ‘chuckle’ and a ‘snort’. But the poem […]
Have you heard the one-line joke, usually attributed to Steven Wright, about the dictionary? ‘I finally got around to reading the dictionary’, it goes. ‘Turns out the zebra did it.’ It’s a good joke, but of course ‘zebra’ isn’t the last word in any English dictionary worth the name (what […]
A septet of great words invented by the American wit, H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken, to give him his full name) was born on this day in 1880, so to toast this great American journalist, critic, and all-round wit, we’ve put together a list of […]
The literary origin of the expression ‘swings and roundabouts’ in a forgotten poem Where does the phrase ‘swings and roundabouts’ originate? It’s widely believed that it had its origins in a little-known poem by Irish writer Patrick Reginald Chalmers (1872-1942). Chalmers was a banker as well as a poet, and he […]
The best words for describing people and their annoying habits The subject of this post is somewhat niche, we’ll admit, but here at Interesting Literature we love the English language and the fact that at some point in its rich history a word has been invented for just about everything, or so […]