Two ancient long-haul boats
Lopez refers to some of the ancient boats that reached the Arctic from Europe, including the Irish carraughs and Norse...
A claver of birds
A Scottish or Northern English dialect word which seems to have travelled to North America. It means to talk idly...
Berms of the road
How did this simple word elude me all these decades? It refers to a strip of land or grass, a...
A threatening of …
What would you associate with 'a threatening'? Clouds? Storms? Thugs loitering on street corners, or skulking in doorways and dark...
A doctrine of doctors
So now, when you are reporting from a medical conference, you know the correct term to package all those medics...
Trim, trig and tickety-boo
Came across the upright word 'trig' in another of Arthur Ransome's charming children's adventure stories, Winter Holiday, which I read...
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