Word Collector

Our British term of the day:

Bobby Dazzler

I heard it on Bargain Hunt this weekend. David Dickinson was commenting on a sparkly ring that one contestant purchased and said, "That's a real bobby dazzler!" My ears pricked up immediately—there's a word I must use!

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of bobby-dazzler back to 1891. A quick web search (and David's use) indicate it refers to something striking or excellent.

Your challenge: to use "bobby dazzler" in a sentence today. Make your language sparkle!  Read more »

Chunter

Dame Judi Dench has contributed today's British word of they, via the sitcom As Time Goes By. The boxed DVD set arrived today and so I'm on a bit of a bender. It seemed nothing could stop me from watching more of my new favorite sitcom. Nonetheless, as soon as I heard Jean scoff at Lionel, "What are you chuntering on about?" I paused the DVD player excitedly and went to look the word up.  Read more »

I was watching As Time Goes By over lunch today when I heard the perfect new term for my vocabulary. The character of Alastair breezed into a room, looked at someone wearing pajamas and said, "Jim-jams? At this hour?"

Stop TiVo! Jim-Jams? I'm in LOVE. Immediately, I do a search and replace in my brain, replacing all incidents of pajamas with jim-jams. It's vocabulary nirvana!  Read more »

You ever find out that you got something so wrong - maybe a song lyric or a book title - that you feel compelled to share your embarrassment with everyone else?

Well, let me air my embarrassing misunderstood moment. I've been watching British decorating shows for maybe seven or eight years, and all this time, I've been wondering what a certain color was supposed to be.

Karkee?

Car Key?

Karque?  Read more »