In 1986, The Economist assembled a list of English terms that had become more or less universal. They were: airport, passport, hotel, telephone, bar, soda, cigarette, sport, golf, tennis, stop, O.K., weekend, jeans, know-how, sex appeal, and no problem.
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
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In 1986, The Economist compiled a list of English words that had gained widespread recognition across different languages and cultures. This collection included terms related to travel, leisure, and modern life, such as "airport," "hotel," and "telephone," as well as expressions like "O.K." and "no problem." These words reflect the influence of English on global communication and everyday vocabulary.

Bill Bryson's book, "The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way," explores the evolution of the English language, highlighting its adaptability and the way it has absorbed various influences over time. The selected words illustrate how certain English terms have transcended their origins to become part of a universal lexicon, underlining the global prevalence of the English language.

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The Mother Tongue:...
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Other quotes in The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way

From this I think we can conclude that the definitive English holorime has yet to be written. However, an old children's riddle does seem to come close. It is the one that poses the question "How do you prove in three steps that a sheet of paper is a lazy dog?"The answer: {1} a sheet of paper is an ink-lined plane; {2} an inclined plane is a slope up; {3} a slow pup is a lazy dog.
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
From this I think we can conclude that the definitive English holorime has yet to be written. However, an old children's riddle does seem to come close. It is the one that poses the question "How do you prove in three steps that a sheet of paper is a lazy dog?"The answer: {1} a sheet of paper is an ink-lined plane; {2} an inclined plane is a slope up; {3} a slow pup is a lazy dog.
Some of these words deserve to be better known. Take velleity, which describes a mild desire, a wish or urge too slight to lead to action. Doesn't that seem a useful term? Or how about sluibbergegullion, a seventeenth-century word signifying a worthless or slovenly fellow? Or ugsome, a late medieval word meaning loathsome or disgusting.
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
Some of these words deserve to be better known. Take velleity, which describes a mild desire, a wish or urge too slight to lead to action. Doesn't that seem a useful term? Or how about sluibbergegullion, a seventeenth-century word signifying a worthless or slovenly fellow? Or ugsome, a late medieval word meaning loathsome or disgusting.
If you have a morbid fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth, there is a word for it: arachibutyrophobia… And there's a word for describing a sudden breaking off of thought: aposiopesis… When you are just dropping off to sleep and you experience that sudden sensation of falling, there is a word for it: it's a myoclonic jerk.
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
If you have a morbid fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth, there is a word for it: arachibutyrophobia… And there's a word for describing a sudden breaking off of thought: aposiopesis… When you are just dropping off to sleep and you experience that sudden sensation of falling, there is a word for it: it's a myoclonic jerk.
Not only were the Anglo-Saxons relatively uncultured, they were also pagan, a fact rather quaintly preserved in the names of four of our weekdays, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which respectively commemorate the gods Tiw, Woden, and Thor, and Woden's wife, Frig. {Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, to complete the picture, take their names from Saturn, the sun, and the moon.}
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
Not only were the Anglo-Saxons relatively uncultured, they were also pagan, a fact rather quaintly preserved in the names of four of our weekdays, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which respectively commemorate the gods Tiw, Woden, and Thor, and Woden's wife, Frig. {Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, to complete the picture, take their names from Saturn, the sun, and the moon.}
Almost all languages change. A rare exception is written Icelandic, which has changed so little that modern Icelanders can read sagas written a thousand years ago, and if Leif Ericson appeared on the streets of Reykjavik he could find his way around, allowing for certain difficulties over terms like airport and quarter-pound cheeseburger.
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
Almost all languages change. A rare exception is written Icelandic, which has changed so little that modern Icelanders can read sagas written a thousand years ago, and if Leif Ericson appeared on the streets of Reykjavik he could find his way around, allowing for certain difficulties over terms like airport and quarter-pound cheeseburger.
Consider the oft-quoted statement "the exception proves the rule." Most people take this to mean that the exception confirms the rule, though when you ask them to explain the logic in that statement, they usually cannot. After all, how can an exception prove a rule? It can't. The answer is that an earlier meaning of prove was to test {a meaning preserved in proving ground} and with that meaning the statement suddenly becomes sensible-the exception tests the rule.
Bill Bryson The Mother Tongue:...
Consider the oft-quoted statement "the exception proves the rule." Most people take this to mean that the exception confirms the rule, though when you ask them to explain the logic in that statement, they usually cannot. After all, how can an exception prove a rule? It can't. The answer is that an earlier meaning of prove was to test {a meaning preserved in proving ground} and with that meaning the statement suddenly becomes sensible-the exception tests the rule.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Edward Gorey Ascending Peculiarity:...
All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
"That's a huge gamble." "We're long past the time for careful certainty."
Peter F. Hamilton The Evolutionary Void
"That's a huge gamble." "We're long past the time for careful certainty."
When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?
Robin Hobb The Rain Wilds...
When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?
Relationships and marriages are hard enough, but you add war into the mix and small fissures become gaping wounds. No one sees what you're seeing - again that clear-eyed, unbiased thing - except your fellow soldiers. It's like one of those movies where only the hero can see the ghosts and everyone else thinks the hero is crazy.
Harlan Coben Fool Me Once
Relationships and marriages are hard enough, but you add war into the mix and small fissures become gaping wounds. No one sees what you're seeing - again that clear-eyed, unbiased thing - except your fellow soldiers. It's like one of those movies where only the hero can see the ghosts and everyone else thinks the hero is crazy.
I think I couldn't love him at all if he was the sort of man to make me choose between him and my writing. And
Meljean Brook The Kraken King and the...
I think I couldn't love him at all if he was the sort of man to make me choose between him and my writing. And
Sociologists have a theory of the looking - glass self. You become what the most important person in your life {wife, father, boss, etc.} thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?
Philip Yancey What's So Amazing About...
Sociologists have a theory of the looking - glass self. You become what the most important person in your life {wife, father, boss, etc.} thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?
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The Red Lion was a four-ale bar with a handful of lowbrowed sons of toil who looked as though they might be related to one another in ways frowned on by the Old Testament. Sebastian Faulks
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But an ink brush, she thinks, is a skeleton key for a prisoner's mind. David Mitchell
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