This blog is for everyone who uses words.

The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.



Tuesday 17 January 2017

Thing Not To Do Today: niggle.

Ah, diddums...

...is the bus five whole minutes late?

...have they run out of cheese and tomato sandwiches again?

...are you wondering if you might be getting a cold?

...have they moved the football programme?

...was that another split infinitive in a national newspaper?

...has all this happened on the same day?

Well, try not to niggle about it the whole time, do. All that whining and complaining is just for toddlers - 

- and irritating toddlers, at that.

Gebhard Fugel Kleines Mädchen weinend.jpg
painting by By Gebhard Fugel - Own work (fotografiert in der Ausstellung "Gebhard Fugel 1863-1939. Von Ravensburg nach Jerusalem". Galerie Fähre, Altes Kloster, Bad Saulgau, 2014), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32071371

Thing Not To Do Today: niggle. This word comes from Scandinavia, but when it first came to England it meant do in an ineffectual way. It seems to be related to the Norwegian nigla


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