#englishlanguage — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #englishlanguage, aggregated by home.social.
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A Necessary History of the Oddest Letter: W
https://lithub.com/a-necessary-history-of-the-oddest-letter-w/
> The letter W is a child of the fall of Rome. In the fifth century CE, the western half of the Roman Empire disintegrated into a patchwork of new kingdoms and new rulers. The reasons behind this collapse of imperial power are complex, but a large role was played by various peoples who had formerly lived outside its borders. The Romans might have looked down on these migrants as ‘barbarians’, but they also increasingly came to rely on them for military support.
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One Word Sunday – Geometry
One Word Sunday, driven by Travel with Intent is asking for a photo covering the word "Geometry".In Europe, there are many houses where you can see the half-timbering. The arrangement of the various beams follows a geometric pattern that was precisely calculated to keep the house stable. -
One Word Sunday – Blue
One Word Sunday, driven by Travel with Intent is asking for a photo with the word or the meaning "Blue".Blue can be either a color or a mood. The picture I have chosen, shows both: The color and the mood. -
"I before E, except after C" is an ancient proverb known to many in society. It was never scientific, with a deficiency of evidence, and not efficient at explaining English spelling. I can't in good conscience recommend it any more than other fallacies.
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Weather idioms
Idiom is a linguistic term for a set phrase or expression with a figurative meaning. As a rule, it’s pretty difficult to guess the meaning of an idiom from the literal definitions of its individual words, which can make them a bit difficult to learn. If you’re an English language learner, you’ve probably encountered this problem: even when you know all the words within an idiom, translating them literally gets you nowhere, as the resulting translation usually doesn’t make any sense.
Rather than approaching idioms as a problem to be solved, try to see them as a kind of language shortcuts: they typically carry a lot of meaning beyond the literal words. Learning them is important, as they are broadly and commonly used by native speakers: you’ll often encounter them in both spoken and written language. Using them will make your speech sound more natural.
The topic of this post are weather idioms, i.e. idioms with meteorological terms as key words. As you’ll see, they are all used metaphorically to describe human moods and experiences; some may be rather logical, others not so! Also, be aware that there are hundreds of weather idioms in the English language, so this is just a very small sample of the most common ones.
As usual on this blog, at the end of this post you’ll find a link to a simple quiz where you can practice these same idioms a bit more. It might help you remember them more easily.
TO BE/FEEL UNDER THE WEATHER
I didn’t go to the party last night, I was feeling under the weather.
- to feel slightly ill or sick (usually temporarily)
TO WEATHER THE STORM
Our company had a difficult year, but we managed to weather the storm.
- to deal with a difficult situation without too much harm or damage
TO BE ON CLOUD NINE
I finally got my dream job, I’m on cloud nine!
- to be extremely happy
A STORM IN A TEACUP
Do you remember that huge argument they had last week? It turned out be a storm in a teacup.
- a small problem that is exaggerated and treated as if it were very serious
TO TAKE A RAIN CHECK
Thank you so much for the offer, but can I take a rain check?
- to politely decline an offer or invitation for now, while remaining open to accepting it at a later time
TO STEAL [SOMEONE’S] THUNDER
Mark told everyone about his new job, but his sister stole his thunder by announcing her engagement.
- to take attention away from another person; to take spotlight
TO RAIN ON [SOMEONE’S] PARADE
I’m in such good mood today, I won’t let anyone rain on my parade!
- to spoil someone’s plans or good mood
TO PUT [SOMETHING] ON ICE
The manager has put the new project on ice due to lack of funding.
- to postpone, to put on hold
TO BE SNOWED UNDER
I haven’t had any free time lately, I’ve been snowed under with work.
- to be extremely busy and overwhelmed
TO BREAK THE ICE
People often use small talk to break the ice.
- to say or do something to make people (often total strangers) feel more relaxed and comfortable
Now you can do the online quiz. And if you want to learn more weather idioms, have a look at the list of suggested resources below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
10 Weather Idioms in British English
100 Weather Idioms and Expressions
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the subscribe box below.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Photo by Daniel Lerman via Unsplash.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishTeacher #EnglishVocabulary #idioms #learningEnglish #vocabularyQuiz #weather -
"Tonight do not miss Space 1999 with Martin Baby Stroller, Barbara Bath, and Barry Walrus."
I jest but French is my mother tongue, and my English when Space: 1999 was first broadcast was very iffy.
So Landau registered as the French word landau, which means baby stroller. Bain registered as the French word bain, which means bath. Morse registered as the French word morse, which means walrus.
#Space1999 #FrenchLanguage #EnglishLanguage #BabyCarriage #bath #walrus
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All of us who speak colloquial English have totally missed our chance to make "bear my beer" a thing.
I mean, if you wanted the holder of your beer to provide entertainment as well, you could even say, "Bear bare my beer."
And if said beerholder is of the ursine variety, you'd be blessed by the language deities to be able to command: "Bare bear, bear my beer!"
We could all stand to be a bit more creative with our words.
#ILoveLanguage
#EnglishLanguage
#colloquialisms
#bears
#beer
#HoldMyBeer -
Brain blippedy-blerps this fine evening:
I love em-dashes and I love the word “actually”, but these days I use both a lot more carefully. In the pre-AI era I’d throw them around a fair bit, before they were so horribly overused.
Kind of related but not really: the French word « actuellement » doesn’t actually mean “actually”.
I wonder which words are being chronically overused by AI in other languages?
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Scarecrows used to be called hobidy-boobies.
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"My Baby You" is a song written and performed by #MarcAnthony, and was released as the fourth single of his first #Englishlanguage album #MarcAnthony.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnh0yU5ef4U -
Therefore, I submit the following as a synonym for "to totter":
TO TORKLE.
Example sentence: Courtney got up in the middle of the night and torkled blearily to the bathroom.
This actually happened last night, which is what brought on this wild language ride first thing this morning. You're welcome. 😁💜✌️🤘🖖
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#language
#etymology
#linguistics
#GermanLanguage
#EnglishLanguage
#Latin
#ILoveLanguage -
14 weird English words that sound made up, but aren’t
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"Bad Boy" is a song by the American band #MiamiSoundMachine, led by Cuban-American singer #GloriaEstefan, and released as the second single from their second #EnglishLanguage album, and ninth overall, #PrimitiveLove (1985). The song enjoyed much success following up on the band's mainstream breakthrough single, "Conga". It also was featured in and opened the film #ThreeMenAndABaby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiXCyxkrSko -
@CindySue I had a book series in my youth called The Superior Person's Book of Words. Great fun reading about all these obscure words, a few of which I already knew. The one that stuck with me the most was rubiginous for a rusty red-brown color.
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English word of the day:
torpor 🦥
A state of sluggish inactivity, often mistaken for “careful energy management.”
Example: By 3 p.m., his torpor had matured into a strategic refusal to open another email.
🇫🇷 torpeur
🇪🇸 sopor
🇵🇹 torpor
🇮🇹 torpore -
Master linguist visits town with world’s most ‘perplexing’ accent and finally meets his match
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/perplexing-glaswegian-scottish-dialect-ex1/
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English word of the day:
colloquial 💬
Informal, everyday language…the kind grammar books pretend not to overhear.
Example: Her speech was delightfully colloquial; the committee minutes were less delighted.
🇫🇷 familier
🇪🇸 coloquial
🇵🇹 coloquial
🇮🇹 colloquiale -
English word of the day:
élan ✨
A distinctive blend of confidence, energy, and style; especially useful when competence is still en route.
Example: He entered the meeting with great élan and absolutely no agenda.
🇫🇷 élan
🇪🇸 brío
🇵🇹 garbo
🇮🇹 slancio -
English word of the day:
highfalutin 🎩
Pompous, pretentious, and dressed in vocabulary several sizes too large.
Example: He called lunch “a midday culinary symposium”; it was a ham sandwich.
🇫🇷 prétentieux·euse
🇪🇸 rimbombante
🇵🇹 pretensioso/a
🇮🇹 altisonante -
English word of the day:
spindrift 🌊
Sea spray whipped from wave crests by the wind…nature’s complimentary facial, administered without consent.
Example: The spindrift made the coastal walk invigorating, which is tourism-speak for “wet and regrettable.”
🇫🇷 embruns
🇪🇸 espuma de mar;
🇵🇹 espuma de mar; chuá; rociada
🇮🇹 spruzzo; schizzo del mare -
English word of the day:
comely ✨
Attractive in a pleasing, slightly old-fashioned way—as though beauty required references.
Example: He was comely, according to an aunt who also called trousers “slacks.”
🇫🇷 avenant.e
🇪🇸 bonito/a
🇵🇹 formoso/a
🇮🇹 avvenente -
English word of the day:
sultry ☀️
Hot, humid, and mysteriously convinced it looks glamorous.
Example: The evening was sultry; my hair interpreted that as a declaration of war.
🇫🇷 torride
🇪🇸 bochornoso
🇵🇹 abafado
🇮🇹 afoso