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Language Quote by Susie Dent

“My work, my love of words, became my refuge, both when I was working on bilingual dictionaries for Oxford University Press and then via my involvement with 'Countdown' - and now 'Catsdown,' as I call it.” quote by Susie Dent — Download Open image

“My work, my love of words, became my refuge, both when I was working on bilingual dictionaries for Oxford University Press and then via my involvement with 'Countdown' - and now 'Catsdown,' as I call it.”

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More by Susie Dent

According to my parents, I've always liked to tune into the conversations of others. But rather than hope for a snippet of salacious gossip,…

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As dialect began to be collected in the late 19th century, such words as Yorkshire's 'gobslotch' emerged, revealing the burgeoning association between gluttony and…

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In the earliest days, make-up and moralising were intertwined. The 'cosmetic slops and washes' of the 17th and 18th centuries aimed to smooth complexions…

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I don't intentionally eavesdrop. I'm not looking for salacious gossip, I'm just looking for vocabulary items.

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Above all, Jane Goodall continues to teach us that, as humans, we are no more entitled to our glorious planet than the chimps she…

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The notion of 'Queen's English' is usually applied to our pronunciation.

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Slang has different functions: many of the words we use are playful and a lot are tribal - we speak the same way as…

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English has always been a mongrel tongue, snapping up words from every continent its speakers encountered.

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As a nation we love our dialects, and there is a lot of regional variance in the names for different foods - barmcake, bap…

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The one thing - apart from assumptions about German - that I have to challenge frequently is people assuming that lexicographers are fierce protectors…

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The character of our language defines us, and dictionaries say as much about us as about the way we speak.

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Almost half the adult population finds discussing the subject of money difficult. Slang words help us to navigate these conversations by making us feel…

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“I only have two words to say More or Less”

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It's like saying French shouldn't be taught because you don't understand it because it's new. Shakespeare is just like learning a new, exciting language.

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I am attracted to looking at the different things language can mean even in one sometimes quite ordinary utterance. Writing is partly about listening…

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What is music? Music is language. A human being wants to express ideas in this language, but not ideas that can be translated into…

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You're beautiful, cute, pretty, gorgeous, and fuck.. I ran out of words.

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The world has a soul and whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of many things.

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“The words for what I want to say right now don't exist. Everything sounds…so cliché.”

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A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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