Evesham and District

Exploring Language now has space for more members.

Language has been evolving since the deep unknown times when particular sounds first came to have particular meanings.  It has been developing and changing ever since. Jonathon Swift of Gulliver’s Travels hated the changes during his lifetime. He called them ‘quaint fopperies’ and campaigned to fix the language forever.  If he had succeeded, we would now be speaking the English of circa 1712, and we would now have far less English to explore.

It's mostly English we explore, but where any of us has any knowledge of any other languages, we explore those too. There are thousands of languages, living and dead, so we can never run out of topics.

Sometimes we explore a particular word. For example, the word ‘resent’. It comes from French ‘sentir’ – to feel.  The word is to do with feeling, but that hasn’t always meant bad feeling. Samuel Pepys, talking about bookkeeping and certain accounts, said they were “mighty well resented and approved of.”  ‘Resentment’ seems to have meant strong feelings in general, including appreciation and gratitude, before settling down to what we mean today.

Sometimes we choose a topic, such as occupations, which takes us into history too.  Leech collectors used to tramp through marshland and later ‘harvest’ leeches off their legs to sell to doctors. 'Leech' was a word for a doctor. It was later that the word meant the bloodsucking creatures, because leeches were an important part of medical practice.

Sometimes we try out clues to cryptic crosswords, which have a language of their own. For example, 'upset’ is one of many words that indicates an anagram. Also confused, muddled, disordered, reformed, and many more. ' 'Wild lions at the back' would be 'loins'.

There is far too much to give a quick summary of our explorations, and far more that we have not yet explored. We’re open to new ideas. Please get in touch if this attracts you.

If this interests you, please get in touch with Caroline Bagshaw Exp Lang.