Wordwizard

Albert Smith decides to leave Britain to live out his life in Australia. He does all that is necessary and is accepted, so Erik, living in the UK says goodbye to the emigrant. In Australia, WOZ is happy to meet the immigrant and buy him a beer. Does Ken in the USA describe Albert as an emigrant or a...

I would use the term bespoke tailor as a matter of course to describe such an establishment, I assumed everyone did, but interestingly if a lady has a suit made by a gentlemen's tailor it is described as "Man Tailored".

Seems fair to me Ken, I would have had no idea as to what the skaters were on about in all probability.

We still have coal, but no real way of getting at it now that the pits have closed, and no-one wants open-cast. The row going on between pro and anti wind farmers is heating up to a level where we will probably be able to generate electricity by harnessing the hot air generated by both sides.

That sounds like an interesting straw poll Ken. I will confirm Erik's observation in that although you wouldn't hear the expression every day it is nowhere near being obsolete, you certainly wouldn't have to explain it to anyone.

I was shocked to realise that this is the third anniversary of your mother’s passing. You should know that my thoughts are still with you, and I know how much you must still miss her, although I am sure that the pain is now starting to go away. I like Dale’s bit about underscoring the failure to kee...

Could this be a st-dude-eous thread?

It's an underground movement.

Long ago I worked with someone who used to say, "There is no such thing as bad beer. It's just that some is better than others". It's probably as well that the great landlord called "Time!" for him, he would be very upset to have to change his pet maxim, because sadly, Edwin is right.

The expression “custom-made” is being used in the UK now, but how did a word meaning “usual practice” come to mean, “made to order”?

Long ago, when I was a theatre reviewer the words repertory and repertoire were not interchangeable, although there is clearly overlap in their definitions. A repertoire was the stock of material that an artist or company was able (or prepared) to perform. A company that staged a different play each...

Nimo, My maxim "If it feels wrong, it probably is" takes effect here. You simply don't talk about bombings as though they were socks, therefore it feels wrong. In fact if it didn't you would not have raised the question in the first place. So I would maintain that although there may be no valid reas...

I have never come across the expression “wire-to-wire”, but “down to the wire” meaning the matter is not decided until the very end is quite common.

Ah, but it's warm in Wales, if a little wet, and we know where to hide.

Dale, I have to say that all of this strikes me as creating jargon for the sake of creating jargon. What is wrong in saying “The Dale Hileman Show is scheduled every Monday and Wednesday with repeats on Friday”? It says what it means without trying to work out whether “horizontal” is actually “verti...