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by Kate Woodford
My posts have had an animal theme of late, and this one is no exception. A piece that I recently posted on bird-related vocabulary covered words for different parts of a bird. This one features vocabulary for parts of other animals, focusing on words that we don’t usually use for parts of human bodies. Continue reading “Paws and claws (Words for parts of animals)”
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by Liz Walter
Back in 2017, my colleague Kate Woodford wrote a couple of posts on ‘binomials’, which are pairs of words joined with ‘and’ or ‘or’, that are used together in a fixed order. Today I’m taking this one step further by looking at ‘trinomials’ or groups of three words always used in the same order. Continue reading “Tall, dark, and handsome: using trinomials”
by Kate Woodford
Do you know the new-ish idiom in the title of this post? For anyone who hasn’t heard this phrase (which is suddenly everywhere), if you spill the tea, you talk about someone else’s private life, sometimes in a way that is unkind. It’s basically another way of saying ‘gossip’. This post, as you might have guessed, looks at the language of gossip and as usual, includes both single words and phrases. Continue reading “Come on, spill the tea! (Words for ‘gossip’)”
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by Kate Woodford
This week, I’m looking at our feathered friends (=birds) and the language that we use to refer to different parts of them and to the things that they do. Continue reading “Nests and crests (Bird words)”
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by Liz Walter
Over the years, I have written several posts about emotions, such as this one on describing emotion with metaphors of height and this one on idioms and phrasal verbs to express happiness. Today’s post looks at something a little different: the nouns we use when we want to talk about the way we experience emotions. Continue reading “Waves, twinges and bursts: words we use to describe emotions”
by Kate Woodford
I recently heard a journalist reflecting on the associations that we have with these opposing words. ‘Up,’ he said, ‘is good’ and ‘down is bad’. While this isn’t always the case, it’s certainly true that the words ‘high’ and ‘up’ often convey positive things, both on their own and in phrases, while ‘low’ and ‘down’ usually suggest the opposite. This post looks at this interesting area of the language.
Let’s start with ‘up’. We find ‘up’ in two nice phrases related to improvement. If a situation is now improving after a difficult or unsuccessful period, we might use the phrasal verb look up, especially by saying ‘things are looking up’. In UK English, we also convey this by saying that something is on the up (or more emphatically, on the up and up):
After a tricky couple of years, I’m pleased to say things are looking up.
Her political career by this time was on the up.
Business is on the up and up.
The adjective down, meanwhile, (or the more emphatic, informal idiom down in the dumps) can be used to mean ‘sad and without hope’ and something that gets you down makes you feel sad and without hope:
You seem a bit down. Is everything all right?
Sometimes, when I’m feeling a bit down in the dumps, I just need to go for a walk.
Having so little money was really starting to get me down.
The adjective ‘up’ meaning ‘happy’ is rather less common than the use of ‘down’ for unhappy, but is used in the phrase up and down, meaning ‘having moods that often change, sometimes happy and sometimes sad’:
I’m a bit up and down since he left, to be honest.
We also say that someone or something experiences ups and downs, meaning both good times and bad times. This phrase can be used of many situations but is especially common when talking about long relationships or careers:
Like every married couple, we’ve had our ups and downs.
‘High’ certainly has positive associations. It means ‘very good’ in phrases such as ‘high quality’ and ‘high standards/principles’. ‘High’ also means ‘being important and having power’ in combinations such as ‘high rank’ and ‘high office’. As you might expect, the opposite in all of these word combinations is ‘low’:
We are lucky in having access to high quality healthcare.
They have a very low standard of living.
He rose to the highest rank in the military.
Like the adjective ‘down’, low can be used to mean ‘sad and without hope’:
She seemed a little low, so I invited her round for a cup of coffee.
Finally, we talk about highs and lows in much the same way that we say ups and downs, meaning both good times and bad times:
Anyone familiar with the emotional highs and lows of new parenthood will love this book.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and that the week ahead contains more highs than lows and more ups than downs!
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by Liz Walter
In my last post, I wrote about metaphorical uses of the word ‘dirty’ and today I’m going to look at the word ‘clean’. It’s an interesting fact that we tend to have more words and phrases for bad or unpleasant things than good or pleasant ones. However, there are still several metaphorical uses of clean that are well worth learning. Continue reading “Keeping your nose clean: the metaphorical use of ‘clean’”
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by Liz Walter
I recently watched a fascinating and shocking TV documentary called ‘Dirty Business’. The subject was the terrible state of the UK’s rivers and seas, and the title has a double meaning. On the one hand, it refers to literal dirt in the water and on the other to apparently unethical practices from both water companies and the UK Environment Agency which should be protecting our water quality. In this post I take a closer look at the way ‘dirty’ is used metaphorically and the words and phrases we often use with it. Continue reading “It’s a dirty business: the metaphorical use of ‘dirty’”
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by Kate Woodford
If, like me, you spent your spare time last month watching the Winter Olympics, you’ll know how exciting it was. I enjoyed everything about it. When I wasn’t watching the events or admiring the fabulous scenery, I was looking at the spectators as they cheered for (=encouraged by shouting at) their country’s sportsmen and women. This post looks at the language we use to describe the behaviour of people who have come together to watch a sports event or an occasion such as a play or concert. Continue reading “Applauding or heckling? (What audiences do)”
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by Liz Walter
My last two posts have looked at figurative and idiomatic uses of the verb ‘throw’. My final post on this remarkably useful verb will focus on some of the phrasal verbs formed with it. Continue reading “Throw away and throw in: phrasal verbs with ‘throw’”