Bøger af Susie Dent

'I love this book' Gyles Brandreth - A special new edition of the much-loved book, and the perfect present for word-lovers

Whether it's the distress of a bad haircut (AGE-OTORI) or longing for the food someone else is eating (GROAKING), the pleasure found in other people's happiness (CONFELICITY) or the shock of jumping into icy water (CURGLAFF), there are real words to pinpoint exactly how you feel and Susie Dent, Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner and lexicographer extraordinaire, is going to help you find them. Here are 1001 terms everyone needs, whether it's the best kind of hug (CWTCH), the relief found in swearing (LALOCHEZIA), or the ability to endure till the end (PERTOLERANCE). It's time to rediscover the lost positives of language (and be more GORM); find out how a stork gave us the word for the love between parent and child, and who the first MAVERICK was. Packed with unexpected stories and unforgettable words, on a mission to describe the indescribable, this life-enhancing book will deepen your vocabulary as much as it extends it. Welcome to the first truly human dictionary, as idiosyncratic and unusual as you are.

The debut murder mystery from Dictionary Corner's resident lexicographer, Susie Dent. **AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**Find the truth between the lines. When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it puzzles the team of lexicographers working there. It soon becomes clear that this is not the usual eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies, and a particular year. For Martha Thornhill, the new Senior Editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant, beautiful older sister Charlie went missing. After a decade spent living abroad, Martha has returned to her father, her home, and the city whose institutions have defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When more letters arrive and the team pull apart the clues within them, the questions become more insistent and troubling. Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, but as the mystery of her disappearance starts to unravel, someone is trying to lead the lexicographers to the truth, while another is desperate to keep it buried. PRAISE FOR SUSIE DENT:'Susie Dent is a national treasure' - RICHARD OSMAN'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent and nobody writes about it more entertainingly' - GYLES BRANDRETH'Stuffed with delightful words . . . it'll keep Scrabble fanatics and wordsmiths entertained for hours' - RADIO TIMES

This new edition of The Language Report covers all aspects of contemporary English as an evolving and mutating language. Slang, text, music, politics, idioms, and the media all contribute to changing the English we speak. This volume aims to chronicle this shapeshifting language over through its recent history, and with a special emphasis on 2004. A collection of some of the most intriguing facts and observations on spoken and written English today, this volume makes for excellent browsing. The fascinating development of euphemisms is covered, from sacking to halving the footprint, by way of making redundant and downsizing. New words are an essential part of this book, from the brand new 'intextication' to 'sexiles' and 'gangmasters'. Larpers and Shroomers examines the newest words in the language, and looks at the influence of current events, politics, and the media on everyday vocabulary, explains trends in grammar, and includes memorables quotes of the year.

Infinitely browsable and completely up to date, The Language Report is a collection of topical and fascinating facts and observations on today's spoken and written English. Backed by the largest language research program in the world at Oxford University Press, this new book presents an up-to-the-minute snapshot of English language today: tracking the latest new words to have entered its usage; investigating old words revived by current events in, for example, the worlds of politics and pop; and examining the most recent trends of language development. This intriguing survey covers language issues reported by the media in recent times, including memorable quotations and sayings of the year; nicknames in the news; new venues for language, such as Internet chatrooms; and controversial developments in usage and grammar. It also analyzes English around the world, uncovering the latest words and phrases to enter our vocabulary; and explores what new words were hundreds of years ago, and how they've developed or disappeared. An ideal reference for all word lovers, this new book offers a fascinating tour of the English language today.

Fanboys and Overdogs is a collection of some of the most intriguing facts and observations on the English language in recent years. In her eminently readable exploration of the changing face of English, Susie Dent takes the reader on a journey through the most exotic and dynamic areas of the language. From histories of words to the word on the street, this completely new volume explores how language is changing, and gives a 'Word a Year' list for 1905 to 2005. The book covers new words, and the language of technology, politics, TV, and the media. Other topics covered include foreign words and phrases, word play, word histories, dialect, spelling, and current controversies of grammar and usage. A brand-new design brings the language to life on the page, and makes the book a pleasure to read. Fanboys and Overdogs is based on the ongoing research at Oxford Dictionaries, home of the Oxford English Dictionary and the largest language research program in the world. Oxford collects and analyses literally hundreds of millions of words of real language and the findings are presented here, many of them for the first time. Compellingly informative and readable Fanboys and Overdogs has something for everyone interested in the English language.

There is a word for how you feel, however you feel and Susie Dent, lexicographer extraordinaire and Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, is going to help you find it.

Did you know that...STEALING SOMEONE'S THUNDER is based on a real event;The original FREELANCES were knights for hire ('free' + 'lance');Nelson was the first TO TURN A BLIND EYE (putting a telescope to his missing eye to ignore orders);GORDON BENNETT was a real (very badly behaved) person;As was JACK THE LAD;PULLING SOMEONE'S LEG was an 18th century robber's trick;BUTTERING UP came from the Indian custom of throwing balls of ghee at statues of gods to ask for favoursThis is just the tiniest taste of the many fascinating tales and histories behind our everyday words and phrases. In Interesting Stories about Curious Words, Susie Dent, Britain's cleverest lexicographer, linguistic expert and much-loved national treasure, explores all the very best RED HERRINGS, COCK AND BULL STORIES, WHITE ELEPHANTS and NINE-DAY WONDERS in the English language. There are enough stories to furnish a hundred conversations in a wonderful collection for everyone who loves words. 'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent' Gyles Brandreth

Susie Dent, bestselling author, broadcaster and word expert, is on a mission to find light in the deepest, darkest corners of our language.It takes just a short browse through the dictionary to spot how it is filled with negative words. But Susie has searched far and wide to unearth happy and uplifting words and phrases that, in some cases, are long forgotten, while others have only just been discovered.Paired with beautiful illustrations, this is the perfect book to lift you out of your mubble fubbles (a slightly sad mood), make you grin like a gigglemug (someone who never stops smiling), and have you chortling (laughing) away in no time.This joyous collection of 100 positive words and their origins will show readers young and old just how wonderful language can be - and how you can use your words to make the world a happier place.

Did you know that . . . a soldier's biggest social blunder is called jack brew - making yourself a cuppa without making one for anyone else? That twitchers have an expression for a bird that can't be identified - LBJ (the letters stand for Little Brown Job)? Or that builders call plastering the ceiling doing Lionel Richie's dancefloor? Susie Dent does.Ever wondered why football managers all speak the same way, what a cabbie calls the Houses of Parliament, or how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up? We are surrounded by hundreds of tribes, each speaking their own distinct slanguage of colourful words, jokes and phrases, honed through years of conversations on the battlefield, in A&E, backstage, or at ten-thousand feet in the air. Susie Dent has spent years interviewing hundreds of professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts, and the result is an idiosyncratic phrasebook like no other. From the Freemason's handshake to the publican's banter, Dent's Modern Tribes takes us on a whirlwind tour of Britain, decoding its secret languages and, in the process, finds out what really makes us all tick.

From dardledumdue, which means daydreamer in East Anglia, through forkin robbins, the Yorkshire term for earwigs, to clemt, a Lancashire word that means hungry, this title investigates an astonishingly rich variety of regional expressions, and provides insight into the history of the English language.

Sparkling with insight and linguistic curiosity, this delightful compendium answers 101 of the most intriguing questions about the English language, from word origins and spelling to grammar and usage. Irresistible to anyone with an interest in the words around them.