Stephen Turton
@stephenturton.bsky.social
‘Stephen’ with a PhD. Studies the history of the English language in relation to society and culture. Owns too many dictionaries. Departmental Lecturer in English Language @universityofoxford.
Look, Ma, I'm in the display window of cambridgebookshop.bsky.social!
October 23, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Look, Ma, I'm in the display window of cambridgebookshop.bsky.social!
The bust of Tolkien in Oxford’s English Faculty Library, 2015 vs. 2025. He’s aged more gracefully than I have.
June 23, 2025 at 8:59 AM
The bust of Tolkien in Oxford’s English Faculty Library, 2015 vs. 2025. He’s aged more gracefully than I have.
Elizabeth Carter offers her view on fashionable accessories in 1748:
‘I should sooner fan myself with a cabbage-leaf than lay out any sum of money, in ornaments, that would buy a book.’
‘I should sooner fan myself with a cabbage-leaf than lay out any sum of money, in ornaments, that would buy a book.’
April 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Elizabeth Carter offers her view on fashionable accessories in 1748:
‘I should sooner fan myself with a cabbage-leaf than lay out any sum of money, in ornaments, that would buy a book.’
‘I should sooner fan myself with a cabbage-leaf than lay out any sum of money, in ornaments, that would buy a book.’
I love finding yet-to-be-revised pockets of Victorian/Edwardian propriety on OED Online.
Here’s a note under SWEAT (first published in 1912) advising that the verb is ‘avoided in refined speech in the ordinary physical senses’; the preferred word is PERSPIRE.
Here’s a note under SWEAT (first published in 1912) advising that the verb is ‘avoided in refined speech in the ordinary physical senses’; the preferred word is PERSPIRE.
April 23, 2025 at 8:14 PM
I love finding yet-to-be-revised pockets of Victorian/Edwardian propriety on OED Online.
Here’s a note under SWEAT (first published in 1912) advising that the verb is ‘avoided in refined speech in the ordinary physical senses’; the preferred word is PERSPIRE.
Here’s a note under SWEAT (first published in 1912) advising that the verb is ‘avoided in refined speech in the ordinary physical senses’; the preferred word is PERSPIRE.
And my favourite, ‘Fresh from the Salon’ Dyche (1774).
April 17, 2025 at 9:54 AM
And my favourite, ‘Fresh from the Salon’ Dyche (1774).
‘AI Doll’ Dyche (1802)
April 17, 2025 at 9:53 AM
‘AI Doll’ Dyche (1802)
‘Young Boris Johnson’ Dyche (also 1764, a bumper year for Dyches)
April 17, 2025 at 9:53 AM
‘Young Boris Johnson’ Dyche (also 1764, a bumper year for Dyches)
‘Demon-Possessed’ Dyche (1764)
April 17, 2025 at 9:53 AM
‘Demon-Possessed’ Dyche (1764)
‘Stoned at 10AM’ Dyche (1788)
April 17, 2025 at 9:52 AM
‘Stoned at 10AM’ Dyche (1788)
The teacher with a thousand faces.
Thomas Dyche’s Guide to the English Tongue (1702) proved so popular that it was still being reprinted in 1821. Almost every edition had Dyche’s portrait at the front. Almost every portrait looked like it was of an entirely different person.
A curated selection:
Thomas Dyche’s Guide to the English Tongue (1702) proved so popular that it was still being reprinted in 1821. Almost every edition had Dyche’s portrait at the front. Almost every portrait looked like it was of an entirely different person.
A curated selection:
April 17, 2025 at 9:51 AM
The teacher with a thousand faces.
Thomas Dyche’s Guide to the English Tongue (1702) proved so popular that it was still being reprinted in 1821. Almost every edition had Dyche’s portrait at the front. Almost every portrait looked like it was of an entirely different person.
A curated selection:
Thomas Dyche’s Guide to the English Tongue (1702) proved so popular that it was still being reprinted in 1821. Almost every edition had Dyche’s portrait at the front. Almost every portrait looked like it was of an entirely different person.
A curated selection:
If trying to get onto Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross doesn’t work out for you, might I suggest Platform 9 next door? It’ll get you to Cambridge, which is only 200 years younger.
April 15, 2025 at 9:38 AM
If trying to get onto Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross doesn’t work out for you, might I suggest Platform 9 next door? It’ll get you to Cambridge, which is only 200 years younger.
The 2nd edition of The Feminine Monarchie: or the Historie of Bees by grammarian and part-time apiarist Charles Butler. A notice in 1634 announced that the book, having been ‘so long by sinister means detained’, would soon come out in a 3rd edition.
Who was trying to suppress the truth about bees?!
Who was trying to suppress the truth about bees?!
April 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
The 2nd edition of The Feminine Monarchie: or the Historie of Bees by grammarian and part-time apiarist Charles Butler. A notice in 1634 announced that the book, having been ‘so long by sinister means detained’, would soon come out in a 3rd edition.
Who was trying to suppress the truth about bees?!
Who was trying to suppress the truth about bees?!
Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, a 17thC treatise on the printing press, is a delight.
A printing-house was customarily called a ‘chapel’. Workers who committed faults in the chapel—swearing, fighting, being drunk, leaving a candle burning at night, etc.—had to pay a fine called a ‘solace’.
A printing-house was customarily called a ‘chapel’. Workers who committed faults in the chapel—swearing, fighting, being drunk, leaving a candle burning at night, etc.—had to pay a fine called a ‘solace’.
April 10, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, a 17thC treatise on the printing press, is a delight.
A printing-house was customarily called a ‘chapel’. Workers who committed faults in the chapel—swearing, fighting, being drunk, leaving a candle burning at night, etc.—had to pay a fine called a ‘solace’.
A printing-house was customarily called a ‘chapel’. Workers who committed faults in the chapel—swearing, fighting, being drunk, leaving a candle burning at night, etc.—had to pay a fine called a ‘solace’.
I've made the Anne-ual pilgrimage to Halifax to celebrate Lister's 234th birthday with @annelistersociety.bsky.social ! How has it been four years already?
April 3, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I've made the Anne-ual pilgrimage to Halifax to celebrate Lister's 234th birthday with @annelistersociety.bsky.social ! How has it been four years already?
I once went through the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English to collect all the attested Middle English spellings of ‘through’ (476).
March 28, 2025 at 1:46 PM
I once went through the Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English to collect all the attested Middle English spellings of ‘through’ (476).
Today’s word is DIMMET, ‘the dusk of the evening (Exmoor).’
(Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary, 1787)
Illustration courtesy of Port Meadow, Oxford.
(Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary, 1787)
Illustration courtesy of Port Meadow, Oxford.
March 25, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Today’s word is DIMMET, ‘the dusk of the evening (Exmoor).’
(Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary, 1787)
Illustration courtesy of Port Meadow, Oxford.
(Francis Grose, A Provincial Glossary, 1787)
Illustration courtesy of Port Meadow, Oxford.
After months of grey, a clear blue sky over Trinity College Chapel. Gather ye vitamins while ye may.
March 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM
After months of grey, a clear blue sky over Trinity College Chapel. Gather ye vitamins while ye may.
Could this substation sign contain the most inappropriate use of Comic Sans in the history of typography?
February 26, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Could this substation sign contain the most inappropriate use of Comic Sans in the history of typography?
Today’s word is CANDLEMAS-BELLS, ‘the snowdrop.’
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1898)
Five days late for Candlemas, but they’re still going strong in the University Parks.
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1898)
Five days late for Candlemas, but they’re still going strong in the University Parks.
February 7, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Today’s word is CANDLEMAS-BELLS, ‘the snowdrop.’
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1898)
Five days late for Candlemas, but they’re still going strong in the University Parks.
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1898)
Five days late for Candlemas, but they’re still going strong in the University Parks.
I hope the menu is less brutal than it was in 1866, when Oxford rowers were prescribed a lunch of underdone mutton and bread (crust only), with no vegetables allowed.
January 28, 2025 at 12:59 PM
I hope the menu is less brutal than it was in 1866, when Oxford rowers were prescribed a lunch of underdone mutton and bread (crust only), with no vegetables allowed.
Today’s word, on the penultimate day of term, is FLAUGHTER, ‘To give free scope to joyful feelings.’
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1900)
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1900)
December 5, 2024 at 9:50 AM
Today’s word, on the penultimate day of term, is FLAUGHTER, ‘To give free scope to joyful feelings.’
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1900)
(Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, 1900)
Happy publication day to ‘Talking Back to the Dictionary’, a special issue of Dictionaries that I had the honour of guest-editing! Hats off to these brilliant authors for showing that the uses to which people have put their dictionaries are as ingenious as they are infinite.
muse.jhu.edu/issue/53360
muse.jhu.edu/issue/53360
December 4, 2024 at 1:50 PM
Happy publication day to ‘Talking Back to the Dictionary’, a special issue of Dictionaries that I had the honour of guest-editing! Hats off to these brilliant authors for showing that the uses to which people have put their dictionaries are as ingenious as they are infinite.
muse.jhu.edu/issue/53360
muse.jhu.edu/issue/53360
Today’s word is SHANKWEARY, ‘fatigued with walking.’
(F. K. Robinson, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby, 1876)
(F. K. Robinson, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby, 1876)
November 29, 2024 at 2:48 PM
Today’s word is SHANKWEARY, ‘fatigued with walking.’
(F. K. Robinson, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby, 1876)
(F. K. Robinson, A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Whitby, 1876)
Today’s word is RUDDERISH, ‘passionate; hasty.’
(James Orchard Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1847)
(James Orchard Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1847)
November 23, 2024 at 8:04 AM
Today’s word is RUDDERISH, ‘passionate; hasty.’
(James Orchard Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1847)
(James Orchard Halliwell, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1847)
Today’s words are SKIRT and SHIRT, which—despite their difference in meaning—share an etymological root. SHIRT is from Old English SCYRTE; SKIRT was borrowed from Old Norse SKYRTA. Both descend from one Germanic word referring to a short item of clothing.
November 20, 2024 at 2:58 PM
Today’s words are SKIRT and SHIRT, which—despite their difference in meaning—share an etymological root. SHIRT is from Old English SCYRTE; SKIRT was borrowed from Old Norse SKYRTA. Both descend from one Germanic word referring to a short item of clothing.