Still going with the 2021 word-a-day challenge, aided by Susie Dent’s Word Perfect, though I’ve been playing catch-up a bit this month. My favourite of February’s phrases:
6th Feb – BUMBERSHOOT – late 19th century American nickname for an umbrella, of all things!
8th Feb – RAGAMUFFIN – originally a byword for the devil, included on this date as it is (so I’ve learned …) infamously inauspicious, particularly in Devon.
14th Feb – FIRKYTOODLING – a far superior word for ‘flirting’ that would make a great name for a dating app 😂
15th Feb – HUFFLE-BUFFS – defined in the Scots language dictionary as ‘old, comfy clothes’. So for the majority of lockdown I’ve been just ‘a Hufflepuff in her huffle-buffs’ …
19th Feb – PERENDINATE – an extension of ‘procrastinate’, meaning to put off until the day after tomorrow! The Romans understood the struggle.
21st Feb – SNACCIDENT – Susie puts it best – ‘the inadvertent eating of a whole packet of biscuits […] when you meant to just have one’.
Which is your favourite?
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