

Monday, 20 May 2013


   A gyre is a circular or spiral motion or form; especially : a giant circular oceanic surface feature made up of currents and winds that spiral around a central point and push water and marine debris to its centre.

The word is also used metaphorically as in the following sentence ffom 'The Professor and the Madman' by Simon Winchester  -  "A hundred years ago it was positively vile.  It was still then low,marshy, and undrained, a swampy gyre of pathways where one sad little stream called the Neckinger seeped into the Thames."


A word coined in May 2013 by Steve Jenner of the Plain English Campaign.  The word is used to describe a series of offences against the English language by the police force.  

Ploddledygook is based on the word gobbledygook  (language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of abstruse technical terms) combined with the plod.   

P.C.Plod is a British slang term used to refer to a police officer, particularly one slow-witted or dull.  A more recent variant is the plod, meaning the police force in general.  The term originates from the character Mr. Plod, a police officer in the Noddy stories written by Enid Blyton.

Advice e-mailed by senior officers included “Articulate your aim as SMART and understood the impact you intended.”  One officer replied “Could you translate this pretentious male bovine dropping for me please?”

Wednesday, 1 May 2013


While I was washing the dishes yesterday I dropped one of the dishes into the washing up water; it didn’t break but I jarbled myself.  At least, at one time I might have claimed I had done so.  Sadly the word is archaic and no longer in use.   

It meant to splatter with something wet or muddy; to besmirch.