Thing Not To Do Today: humble-brag.

I wish my legs were longer. I'm going to look awful in my Dior bikini on our luxury holiday in the Seychelles.

I'm so bad at English that I'm going to have to employ someone to correct my grammar for my speech to the United Nations.

If only I had the self-control to refuse all the free food you get offered in first class.

I'd love to have a Fiat just like yours. I have such trouble parking my Rolls Royce.

*****

Look, the humble-brag: it's completely transparent. It just makes you look like an idiot.

So best not do it, eh?

Thing Not To Do Today: humble-brag. The word humble comes from Old French, from Latin humilis, which means low, and before that from humus, which means the ground. The word brag appeared in the 1200s, but, perhaps surprisingly, its origins are modestly obscure. It may, however, be something to do with the bray of a trumpet, or a Celtic word meaning proud, or an Old Norse word bfragr, which means the toast, or best of anything.