Brave new words
‘Omnishambles’ was declared the Oxford English Dictionary’s ‘word of the year’, but will not for the moment be added to the dictionary itself. Here is a selection of the 498 words which were added to the OED in September alone, a month which concentrated on words beginning ‘a’: — Affogato, n, coffee-based beverage — Agometer, n, a device for measuring electrical resistance — Allowability, n, the state of being allowed — Allusionist, n, Someone who draws allusions — Ealdormanry, n, a legal district in Anglo-Saxon England — Egerdouce, n, an onion-based sauceEntwistle’s pay-off
The BBC licence fee is £145.50; using that sum, how many households would it take to pay off: —The BBC Director-General George Entwistle’s full-year salary of £450,000……3092 households —His year’s salary plus £877,000 pension……9120 households (equivalent to the entire historic borough of Darwen, Lancashire, in which the hamlet of Entwistle is situated)Amazon exploration
Pippa Middleton’s book Celebrate, on how to throw a party, was languishing at 177 in the Amazon bestsellers chart, in spite of a £400,000 advance. Which of this year’s celebrity books are selling and which are not?| Title and author | Amazon rank last week |
| Is it Just Me? by Miranda Hart |
3 |
| Rod: the Autobiography by Rod Stewart |
4 |
| Ratburger by David Walliams |
8 |
| Bradley Wiggins: My Time by Bradley Wiggins |
9 |
| Going to Sea in a Sieve by Danny Baker |
15 |
| My Decade in the Premier League by Wayne Rooney |
879 |
| No Off Switch by Andy Kershaw |
3,647 |
| Michael Ball: the biography by Willie Robertson |
11,359 |
| The Complete Kylie: 25th Anniversary Edition by Simon Sheridan |
19,247 |
| How’s About That Then, Jimmy Savile by Alison Bellamy |
122,122 |
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