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David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, has picked out 100 words to illustrate the changing face of the language from medieval times.
His choices reflect popular culture over the centuries and the development of the internet and text messaging in recent decades.
For the Anglo Saxon period Prof Crystal included 'mead', 'street' and 'lea'. For the medieval era he has opted for pork, dame and royal.
The words chosen for the period between Shakespeare and the King James Bible ââ¬â 'alphabet', 'dialect', 'shibboleth' and 'potato' will all be familiar to modern readers.
But other words for more recent centuries will be a bit more challenging such as 'fopdoodle' ââ¬â a term for an insignificant fool.
The political history of the 1970s is reflected in the choice of 'Watergate', referring to the scandal which led to Richard Nixon being forced to surrender the US presidency.
Other bits of slang have also been chosen including dude, a word more commonly heard in the United States than in Britain.
Recently technology is reflected with 'LOL', arguably the most commonly used text messaging abbreviation of all and 'chillax', a recent introduction combining chill and relax.
Source
Like the word 'fopdoodle' and will have to remember to use it.
His choices reflect popular culture over the centuries and the development of the internet and text messaging in recent decades.
For the Anglo Saxon period Prof Crystal included 'mead', 'street' and 'lea'. For the medieval era he has opted for pork, dame and royal.
The words chosen for the period between Shakespeare and the King James Bible ââ¬â 'alphabet', 'dialect', 'shibboleth' and 'potato' will all be familiar to modern readers.
But other words for more recent centuries will be a bit more challenging such as 'fopdoodle' ââ¬â a term for an insignificant fool.
The political history of the 1970s is reflected in the choice of 'Watergate', referring to the scandal which led to Richard Nixon being forced to surrender the US presidency.
Other bits of slang have also been chosen including dude, a word more commonly heard in the United States than in Britain.
Recently technology is reflected with 'LOL', arguably the most commonly used text messaging abbreviation of all and 'chillax', a recent introduction combining chill and relax.
Source
Like the word 'fopdoodle' and will have to remember to use it.
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