A message from the author

After 20 years writing about the peculiarities and evolution of the English language, I stopped suddenly and finally early in 2017. Truth be told, after 930 issues of my weekly newsletter I was becoming written out. Every week that passed made writing more of a chore and less of a pleasure. So I shall no longer be sending out newsletters nor adding or updating pages on the site.

However, all is not lost. There are nearly 3,000 articles here on aspects of the growth and change of the English language, which will remain online for as long as possible. They should give you as many hours of browsing as you wish. Consult the index or search using the box in the right-hand column on every page. There are many more articles on another site, my dictionary of affixes, in which I define and describe the many prefixes and suffixes in English.

One factor in my decision to stop writing was my recent association with a group creating a nearby heritage railway in the Vale of Berkeley in Gloucestershire. I’ve taken on the job, as a volunteer, to document and move the collection of our partner organisation, the Winchcombe Railway Museum. This links to my previous longstanding involvement with museums, heritage interpretation and railway history. It’s hardly retirement. My current preoccupation — almost full time — is running a volunteer project to digitise the catalogue of the museum.

It has been a pleasure to research and write on language and an honour through that writing to be able to inform and entertain many thousands of people. This site remains a reminder of my years of intense and intrigued interest in English.

Thank you for visiting.

Michael Quinion