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Regular visitors to the Cambridge Dictionary blog will be familiar with my newspaper idioms posts in which I present idioms and phrases from a range of national newspapers published on the same day. This post is the latest in this series.
Continue reading “Getting hitched and biting your tongue (Newspaper idioms)”
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‘Nothing succeeds like excess’, said Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, presumably having a bit of fun with the old proverb, ‘Nothing succeeds like success.’ I mention this because today’s post is all about excess – that is, an amount or level of something that is too much.
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by Liz Walter
In my last post, I looked at how to say someone’s age using the number of years they have been alive. Today’s post covers some other ways of talking about how old a person is, particularly looking at different life stages.
Continue reading “Toddlers, tweens and pensioners: more words for talking about age”
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As I research the language for these posts, I’m often surprised by the number of words and phrases in English for the same basic concept. This week’s subject – the language of limiting things – is no exception.
Continue reading “Curbing and capping (The language of limiting things)”
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by Liz Walter
We often have to talk about the age of people and things, but this is an area where learners often make errors. This post will explain how to talk about age and how to avoid common errors. Continue reading “A young man of twenty: talking about age”
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One of several things we do on this blog is look at the various ways we say the same – or a similar – thing. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life! Today’s post will provide you with a range of ways to say ‘gradually’, including phrases and single words.
healthwashing noun [U]
UK /ˈhelθ.wɒʃ.ɪŋ/ US /ˈhelθ.wɑː.ʃɪŋ/
a practice where products such as food and vitamins are labelled in a way that suggests they are healthier than they actually are
Finally, the government has woken up to the practice of healthwashing that some companies indulge in marketing their products by adding certain attributes in the marketing spin, and on product labels, which may or may not be present in the product. By doing this, they increase the price of the product by a significant percentage and prey on the consumers by taking advantage of their health concerns.
[indiacommentary.com, 26 September 2024]
See also greenwashing, sportswashing
farmwashing noun [U]
UK /ˈfɑːm.wɒʃ.ɪŋ/ US /ˈfɑːrm.wɑː.ʃɪŋ/
a practice where a company gives the impression that its products come from small, local, family-run farms, when this is not actually the case
Organic veg box company Riverford has teamed up with a group of British farmers to launch a new fairness campaign called “Farmers Against Farmwashing” aimed at exposing misleading supermarket “farmwashing” practices – where major supermarkets use fake farm brands and the overuse of the Union Jack to give shoppers the impression that their products come from quaint British family farms. However, much of the food is increasingly sourced from industrial mega farms or from overseas.
[farming.co.uk, 27 September 2024]
sanewashing noun [U]
UK /ˈseɪn.wɒʃ.ɪŋ/ US /ˈseɪn.wɑː.ʃɪŋ/
a practice where journalists or public figures portray someone with extreme ideas or policies as more reasonable and moderate than they actually are, in order to make the person more acceptable to a bigger number of people
The Poynter Institute, a journalism nonprofit, defines “sanewashing” as “the act of packaging radical and outrageous statements in a way that makes them seem normal.” “Sanewashing” is unusual in that it began not with politicians but with journalists, the Columbia Journalism Review suggests, or with people who pride themselves on not using clichés.
[medium.com, 21 November 2024]
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by Liz Walter
Today’s post looks at phrases for talking about what the future holds. In particular, it will cover vocabulary relating to how much – if at all – we can control what happens to us.
Continue reading “It’s written in the stars: talking about things that might happen in the future”
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Today’s post deals with the language around a feeling that we all experience from time to time, embarrassment – that is, the feeling of being ashamed or shy in the company of others.
Continue reading “Cringeworthy and toe-curling (The language of embarrassment)”
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by Liz Walter
The covid pandemic and the continued rise of social media have both caused fundamental changes in the way we communicate and spend time with one another. Because of this, we often need to specify whether we are talking about being in the same physical place as someone or whether we are interacting online, for example to take part in work meetings, family chats or even romantic relationships. Today’s post looks at some words and phrases we use to make that distinction.
Continue reading “In real life or the virtual world: ways of being present”