Words – Interesting Literature

The Original Meaning of Liff

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Have you ever heard of a radlett? It’s defined as the ‘single hemisphere of dried pea which is invariably found in an otherwise spotlessly clean saucepan’. Or how about a lulworth, a ‘measure of conversation’ which ‘defines the amount of the length, loudness and embarrassment of a statement you make when everyone else in the room unaccountably stops talking at the same moment’? Or a skoonspruit, the ‘tiny garden sprinkler thing your mouth sometimes does for no apparent reason’?

29 of the Best Rhymes or Near-Rhymes for ‘Love’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Love is a common theme for poetry. Many poets have sought to describe the feeling of falling in love, being in love, loving someone you shouldn’t, or loving someone who doesn’t return that affection. Love is universal: it can be personal romantic love or even the love of all one’s fellow human beings.

So ‘love’ and ‘poetry’ are pretty much synonymous, in many ways. Yet the romantic poet faces a substantial hurdle when writing their love poem.

22 of the Best Synonyms for ‘Pretentious’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

What’s the technical term for talking about yourself in the third person? Or using the royal ‘we’ when you aren’t a king or queen? Words, of course, are the tools of the writer’s trade. But what are some good words, perhaps even some unusual but wonderfully descriptive words, which mean ‘pretentious’ or ‘pompous’?

14 of the Best ‘Stupid’ Synonyms

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Words, of course, are the tools of the writer’s trade. But what are some good words, perhaps even some unusual but wonderfully descriptive words, which mean ‘stupid’ or ‘foolish’ or ‘gullible’? Here are some of the best, most useful, as well as some of the most unusual synonyms for ‘stupid’ and ‘stupidity’ (and for foolish people).

18 of the Best ‘Lazy’ Synonyms

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The English language possesses more than a few good words that mean ‘lazy’ or ‘a lazy person’. Below, as well as some of the more common synonyms for ‘lazy’ or ‘laziness’, we’ve trawled the old dictionaries and thesauri to find some of the best little-known synonyms for the word ‘lazy’ and its variations. (Being lazy is very different from feeling tired, and tiredness has its own synonyms.)