The Podcast this week was a bit of a one-off, all about words. I talked with my wonderful friend Fiona about words and the topics that came out of them, and here, as promised in the podcast, are some extra details related to what we talked about.

Draught and Draft. The first meaning a gust of air, and the second a written plan or rough copy. But they’re pronounced the same. Which brings me to the pronunciation of -augh or -ough. It’s a minefield. I’ve written some examples of the sounds below as you would pronounce them in English (not Spanish!) So…

Laugh; larf, Taught; tort, Tough; tuff, Cough; coff, Plough; plauw, The list goes on… A lot of fun for learners!

Hamper. This has two seemingly disparate meanings; to hinder, and a picnic basket. So without going into too much detail, there is a possibility that they both come from the same root, related to a container, or something which is trapped. So your picnic is inside a container, and if something is contained, it is hampered; it cannot proceed. It works for me!

Daft as a brush . Possibly, this comes from the idea that anything that does all the hard work is a fool. A brush works for you, doesn’t it? Other phrases exist with objects that we use to help us in our day to day, like silly as a wheel!

Ubiquitous. Meaning everywhere, from Latin. I mentioned that the word was similar in Spanish, because ubicar, meaning to place or locate comes from the same root of ubi, meaning place or where.

Break and Brake. These are homophones. I haven’t found any definitive evidence that there is any connection between the two as far as their roots are concerned, but that said, neither have I spent hours searching. However, I do want to point out that it is conceivable, and that I liked what we mentioned about brake meaning to slow down in a car, essentially to start to stop, and break meaning when something stops working… Any takers for that theory?

Anyway, I hope this fills in a few gaps relating to our chat. Please do listen and enjoy!

I’m off next week, but will be back on the 25th of April.

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