Khan, Introduction: Grace Dent Interviews: Coco; Parkinson, Hannah Jane (8 June 2019). " 'There's no such thing as an overshare': meet the hosts of Britain's most candid podcasts". The Guardian . Retrieved 18 June 2019. In Dictionary Corner with Countdown's Susie Dent, the 'dominatrix' of words". Radio Times. 8 November 2016. Word Perfect from Susie Dent is a book filled with words you either don’t often hear these days or the original meaning behind these words has long been forgotten. The book is set out in a diary format, so that you have one word a day, beginning on New Years Day with the word ‘Crambazzled’ which in old Yorkshire dialect means to be prematurely aged through excess drinking, a word a lot of people could use on the 1st January. The publication of her latest book caused something of a stir, as the initial print run contained numerous errors; an unfortunate irony, given its title: Word Perfect. The author had sent the final proofs for correction, but somehow the editing process failed, with Covid measures blamed for a glitch in the system. New copies were hastily printed, minus typos, though perhaps those in the original print run might end up as collectors’ items. Lexicographer and all-round word expert, queen of Countdown‘s Dictionary Corner for over twenty years; regular columnist for the Independent, Radio Times and The Week, Susie Dent is a national treasure. Her warm witty tweets reintroducing us to the words that we all need more in our lives from scurryfunge (frantically tidying up by shoving things into a cupboard just before visitors arrive) to apricity, (the warmth of the sun on a winter’s day) are among the internet’s most shared – now she’s turning them into a linguistic almanac.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them”: words of positivity from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. But how many of us really dwell on the upside of life, as opposed to its mad, bad, seamy side? It’s unsurprising that we have lost some of our joie de vivre in the past few years – finding sparkle amid the grey has become distinctly difficult. But a riffle through a historical dictionary suggests that it’s always been this way, and at heart we’ve long been a pessimistic lot. Linguistically, as in life, our glass is usually half-empty. In 2019, Dent launched the gold award podcast, Something Rhymes With Purple, co-hosted with her friend Gyles Brandreth [13] and have followed up with their live theatre stage residencies using the same formula as their podcast. [14] Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries. She has been honorary vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading since 2016, as well as an Honorary Fellow and vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists since 2023. [16] [17] Published books [ edit ] I love finding new words and some are intriguing such as ‘Choreomania’ which is the compulsion to dance. What’s more, is that every word not only has a definition but it also contains information about its origins and a factual story about something related to it. In this case, in 1374 in the town of Aachen, Germany it is recorded that the citizens congregated en masse and began to dance uncontrollably.Moreover, perhaps it isn’t all down to our attitude. Some linguists believe the geography of a language shapes its sounds, and those sounds in turn influence our thoughts. The soft, sibilant lilts of the Mediterranean, for example, may seem a perfect match for its sun-soaked skies. The waterfalls and crashing pines of northern climes, on the other hand, may have led to what the 19th-century sound symbolist Charles Nodier described as our “raw and clashing vocabularies”. It follows, perhaps, that our thinking is just as clashing and discordant as a result. Butcher, David. "Not Going Out – what time is it on TV? Episode 4 Series 8 cast list and preview". Radiotimes.com . Retrieved 25 July 2017. This is a book that will fill those who love to learn and gain knowledge with giddy excitement. 365 words, their origins, meanings, and factual information contained in one book written in an easy-to-understand style, and with the diary format you could choose to learn one new word a day. Although I’m not quite accurate in saying just one word a day or 365 words as each word often has others contained within the information that is related to the given word, so in fact, you are getting a lot more than you would expect. In 2005 the same publisher issued Winning Words ( ISBN 0199198748), and in 2009 What Made the Crocodile Cry? 101 questions about the English language ( ISBN 0199574154). Dent's book about dialects, How to Talk Like a Local ( ISBN 1905211791), was published in March 2010.

I enjoyed learning about the words. Whether they will stay in my head and I remember to use them as and when the time arises is a different matter. The book is very British and there will be words that those around the world will never have heard of. There are also some that British people will never have heard of because they are regional words never heard outside of their city of origin or mean something different in different parts of the country. Sneddon, Dan (4 July 2022). "Countdown's Susie Dent reflects on 30th anniversary". Yahoo.com . Retrieved 15 March 2023. Shahid, Sharnaz (14 October 2020). "Countdown's Susie Dent gives rare insight into home life with daughters". Hello! . Retrieved 6 February 2021. It’s true too that other languages dish out positivity a little better than us. They have a splash of what the Italians call sprezzatura, a careless, thrown together nonchalance or indifference to life’s curveballs. As for joy, it would be hard to beat gigil from the Philippines. In a single word it conveys the “irresistible desire to squeeze something cute”. CIOL Representation | CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists)". ciol.org.uk . Retrieved 13 June 2023.Dent presented Channel 4 web series Susie Dent's Guide to Swearing, which explored the etymology and history of select English swear words. [11] She has also made an appearance on BBC entertainment show Would I Lie to You?. [12] In 2018, she also appeared on five episodes of the panel show House of Games. Dent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her B.A. in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German. It’s full of interesting titbits that you can treat like a selection box of biscuits, choosing those that take your fancy and skipping over the others: rather than devouring it whole from cover to cover, it's something you might prefer to dip into from time to time. From 2003 to 2007, Dent was the author of a series of yearly Language Reports for the Oxford University Press (OUP). The first was simply titled The Language Report, and this was followed by Larpers and Shroomers (2004); Fanboys and Overdogs (2005); The Like, Language Report for Real (2006); and The Language Report: English on the Move 2000 – 2007 (2007). The format of this publication was revised for 2008 as an A–Z collection of new and newly resurrected words. It was published in October 2008 as Words of the Year ( ISBN 9780199551996). Dent was born in Woking, Surrey. [1] She was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school, [3] with a term at Eton College to study for Oxbridge entrance exams. [4] She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her BA in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German. [5] Career [ edit ]