Last Word: Ben MacIntyre

A short essay 'Philavery" - the use of idiosyncratic, obscure and uncommon words with impact from Times journalist Ben MacIntyre:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2153466.ece

which gives me the pretext to link to two other sites I've intended to mention for a few weeks now:

Word Spy - Recently coined "new" words:

www.wordspy.com/index.asp

and the Elizabethan Curse Generator, providing (it claims) 388944 different insults, so if you have ever wished you could swear at someone with the inventiveness of Thomas Nashe cursing Gabriel Harvey, this is for you:

http://trevorstone.org/curse/