Adam Jacot de Boinod

Toponymy is the study of place names. Often, areas are simply named after a local natural or geographical…

My last column was on colourful insults, and that’s one way to go. This week, let’s wander down the gentler route.…

Slang, aiming as it does to elicit a laugh and a gasp, uses brevity, wit and invention to great effect. It’s also…

In a continent as vast, ancient and diverse as Asia, it’s no surprise that many cultures have glossaries of terms…

You’d think that around the world, Say Cheese!, Bless You! and Cheers! were standard responses to posing for a…

One of the things I love collecting, as I trawl through the languages of the world in my research for my books, is…

We’re all familiar with the idea of a red herring, a blue ribbon, a black market. Indeed, colours infuse our…

My interest in the quirkiness of foreign words was triggered when one day, working as a researcher for the BBC, I…