I love finding new words and some are intriguing such as ‘Choreomania’ which is the compulsion to dance. What’s more, is that every word not only has a definition but it also contains information about its origins and a factual story about something related to it. In this case, in 1374 in the town of Aachen, Germany it is recorded that the citizens congregated en masse and began to dance uncontrollably. She has been honorary vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading since 2016, as well as an Honorary Fellow and vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Linguists since 2023. [16] [17] Published books [ edit ] Sneddon, Dan (4 July 2022). "Countdown's Susie Dent reflects on 30th anniversary". Yahoo.com . Retrieved 15 March 2023. Dent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her B.A. in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German.

Susie Dent (born 1964) [1] [2] is an English lexicographer, etymologist, and media personality. She has appeared in "Dictionary Corner" on the Channel 4 game show Countdown since 1992. She also appears on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, a post- watershed comedy version of the show. In 2019, Dent launched the gold award podcast, Something Rhymes With Purple, co-hosted with her friend Gyles Brandreth [13] and have followed up with their live theatre stage residencies using the same formula as their podcast. [14]

This item contains adult content

Word Perfect from Susie Dent is a book filled with words you either don’t often hear these days or the original meaning behind these words has long been forgotten. The book is set out in a diary format, so that you have one word a day, beginning on New Years Day with the word ‘Crambazzled’ which in old Yorkshire dialect means to be prematurely aged through excess drinking, a word a lot of people could use on the 1st January. Dent is well known as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on Channel 4's long-running game show Countdown. On each episode, she also provides a brief commentary on the origin of a particular word or phrase. Dent is the longest-serving member of the show's current on-screen team, first appearing in 1992; she has made more than 5,000 appearances. [7] Dent also works on the spin-off show 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. [8] I enjoyed learning about the words. Whether they will stay in my head and I remember to use them as and when the time arises is a different matter. The book is very British and there will be words that those around the world will never have heard of. There are also some that British people will never have heard of because they are regional words never heard outside of their city of origin or mean something different in different parts of the country.

It’s true too that other languages dish out positivity a little better than us. They have a splash of what the Italians call sprezzatura, a careless, thrown together nonchalance or indifference to life’s curveballs. As for joy, it would be hard to beat gigil from the Philippines. In a single word it conveys the “irresistible desire to squeeze something cute”. CIOL Representation | CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists)". ciol.org.uk . Retrieved 13 June 2023. Lexicographer and all-round word expert, queen of Countdown‘s Dictionary Corner for over twenty years; regular columnist for the Independent, Radio Times and The Week, Susie Dent is a national treasure. Her warm witty tweets reintroducing us to the words that we all need more in our lives from scurryfunge (frantically tidying up by shoving things into a cupboard just before visitors arrive) to apricity, (the warmth of the sun on a winter’s day) are among the internet’s most shared – now she’s turning them into a linguistic almanac.Dent presented Channel 4 web series Susie Dent's Guide to Swearing, which explored the etymology and history of select English swear words. [11] She has also made an appearance on BBC entertainment show Would I Lie to You?. [12] In 2018, she also appeared on five episodes of the panel show House of Games. Dent was born in Woking, Surrey. [1] She was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school, [3] with a term at Eton College to study for Oxbridge entrance exams. [4] She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her BA in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German. [5] Career [ edit ]

Butcher, David. "Not Going Out – what time is it on TV? Episode 4 Series 8 cast list and preview". Radiotimes.com . Retrieved 25 July 2017. When Dent began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries. [6] Shahid, Sharnaz (14 October 2020). "Countdown's Susie Dent gives rare insight into home life with daughters". Hello! . Retrieved 6 February 2021.

About this book

From 2003 to 2007, Dent was the author of a series of yearly Language Reports for the Oxford University Press (OUP). The first was simply titled The Language Report, and this was followed by Larpers and Shroomers (2004); Fanboys and Overdogs (2005); The Like, Language Report for Real (2006); and The Language Report: English on the Move 2000 – 2007 (2007). The format of this publication was revised for 2008 as an A–Z collection of new and newly resurrected words. It was published in October 2008 as Words of the Year ( ISBN 9780199551996). In 2005 the same publisher issued Winning Words ( ISBN 0199198748), and in 2009 What Made the Crocodile Cry? 101 questions about the English language ( ISBN 0199574154). Dent's book about dialects, How to Talk Like a Local ( ISBN 1905211791), was published in March 2010.