Vocabulary

Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa, soon-to-be former President Sarkozy of France, is the first of the three principle war criminals responsible for launching a massive NATO bombing campaign on Libya in 2011 that maimed and killed thousands of civilians to be kicked out of office by his own electorate - and beyond presidential immunity. (more…)

A reader writes: “Is the word ‘footer’, now used in documents and written on one of your pages, a correct English word? I think it was created by Microsoft, and I believe the word ‘footnote’ would be more appropriate.”

Let’s try to clear this up. I’m not sure whether the word “footer” was coined by Microsoft or not, but if it was it made it into my 1995 edition of Concise Oxford Dictionary. For the context that we are discussing, the two words can be defined as:

• footnote (noun): a note at the bottom of a specific page usually about something on that page.
• footer (noun): a piece of text or programming code repeated at the bottom of every page.

Footnote: the word “footer” can also be used in combinations such as “six-footer” (a man who is six feet tall) and “right-footer” (a specific kick in football etc).

Many people wonder if there is a difference between the adverbs “specially” and “especially”. Even native speakers aren’t always sure how to use them. In some cases they can actually mean the same thing, especially in informal speech. However, for the sake of simplicity, here are the basic differences between the two words.

specially: for a particular purpose:

• I made this cake specially for Mary.

especially:

1. particularly, above all:

• I hate my teachers, especially Mr Cain.

2. very:

• That was an especially good meal.

People often ask me whether they should write cannot (1 word) or can not (2 words). (more…)

Irony is a situation or state of affairs that seems deliberately opposite to what you expect.

As an example, there are several ironies in the video below. One example of irony is when the police claim that the children cannot be photographed without parental consent and yet those very same children are cadets in an organization that prepares them to kill and be killed. That irony seems to have been lost on the police, who apparently made their claim with a straight face.

(Transcript below) (more…)

A saying is a short, clever expression that usually contains advice or expresses some obvious truth. Many traditional sayings are still in general use today. (more…)

In previous centuries each decade has generally had a label based on its numerical value:

• 1950-1959: The Fifties
• 1960-1969: The Sixties
• 1970-1979: The Seventies
• 1980-1989: The Eighties
• 1990-1999: The Nineties (more…)

A decade? You guessed it - something to do with 10. Several words with “dec” relate to 10, coming from the Greek “deka” for “ten”. A decapod is an animal with 10 legs. A decahedron is a solid with 10 surfaces. A decathlon is an athletic contests with 10 events. Even December - it’s the 10th month (of the ancient Roman year, before they interfered with it). Decimal - no explanation needed. The verb decimate, which popularly means to kill or destroy a large quantity, also has the original meaning: “to kill one person in 10″. And (more…)

If you “wash your hands of something” you say that you have no (more) responsibility for something. The origin of this idiom is in the Bible Matthew 27:24: “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’” He was speaking about (more…)

An idiom is a group of words in current usage having a meaning that is not deducible from those of the individual words. For example, “to rain cats and dogs” - which means “to rain very heavily” - is an idiom; and “over the moon” - which means “extremely happy” - is another idiom. In both cases, you would have a hard time understanding the real meaning if you did not already know these idioms!

Now you can learn a new idiom every day. Just bookmark the following page and visit it daily:
EnglishClub Idiom of the Day