Lost English

To everyone who helped, which is pretty much everyone – so thanks.

from pretty much anywhere a

– the famous diamond-trading district near Holborn in London – and is described

After these come verbs and adjectives, with conjunctions and prepositions developing fastest of all.
From the speed of a word’s or a phrase’s evolution can be calculated its half-life; basically, the faster one arrives, the faster it leaves. This is good news if one wants to see the back of irritating modern terms; ‘homer’ and ‘hardworking families’ could die out tomorrow and it wouldn’t be a moment too soon. However, it will be a shame if the deeply useful ‘telly-clapping’ doesn’t get a decent innings:
Telly clapping: Phenomenon whereby television viewers of a live sporting or other event applaud, shout and even chant as if their behaviour could possibly have any impact on the contests shown great distances away, when actually they are effectively applauding the medium through which it appears.

The need for administrators in the far-flung corners of the British Empire meant that many Indian and Asian terms eventually made their way back home (ayah, dekko, mufti and veranda, qq.v., amongst others) and were absorbed into mainstream English.

English has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. This may be because English has a magpie-like tendency to adopt words from pretty much anywhere as well as having been shaped by successive waves of invaders, bringing with them Danish, Anglo-Saxon and French words. Lost English reveals how some of those words have evolved and how others betray where the English themselves have invaded, or traded

English has the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. This