A biography for Susie Denthasn’t been written yet.
“Slang has always moved this way. From Cockney rhyming slang to codes swapped among highwaymen, they're tribal badges of identity, bonding mechanisms designed to distinguish the initiated, and to keep strangers out.”
“I don't intentionally eavesdrop. I'm not looking for salacious gossip, I'm just looking for vocabulary items.”
“I remember as a child of five or six lying in the bath marvelling at the different languages displayed on the shampoo bottles around me. From that moment on it was always words not numbers that held a fascination for me.”
“Every sport, every profession, every group united by a single passion draws on a lexicon that is uniquely theirs, and theirs for a reason.”
“Footballers, managers, pundits and fans make up possibly the biggest tribe of them all, especially in this country. Whatever is said by pundits is echoed across sofas and in pubs all over the nation.”
“English may be the fastest moving language in the world, but there are plenty of concepts, sensations and everyday occurrences which lack a pithy word to describe them. Take the clunkiness of 'the day before yesterday' and 'the day after tomorrow': German provides single words for both.”
“When I was growing up, I worried that people would dismiss me as a boring swot because I always had my nose in a vocabulary book - usually in French or German.”
“Linguistic supersizing is on the increase, and it may show the influence of advertising-speak and corporate jargon on language, in which everything needs to be hyped to get noticed. It means that some of our greatest words are losing their power.”
“Language is essentially tribal, so jargon can actually be a really good thing because it unites people.”
“I like to introduce a few lost gems when I can to fellow word-lovers, and would genuinely love some of them to make a comeback.”
“I work with the Oxford Dictionary databases, which sounds really boring, but they're actually fascinating as they show you how current words are being used.”
“The extraordinary thing about new words is that probably only about one per cent of them are new. Most are old words revived and adapted.”
“Friable isn't often used of food, yet its meaning lends itself perfectly to pastry and crumbly biscuits.”
“Most crime novels offer a curious kind of escape, to places that jag the nerves and worry the mind. Their rides of suspense give a good thrill, but it's rarely a comfortable one.”
“I've been obsessed with words since I was a little girl, and I am fortunate that each week as resident word expert on 'Countdown' I am ideally placed to quiz my guests in dictionary corner about the words and phrases they use.”
“In many cases, the line between a thriller and a crime novel has become too blurred to be useful.”
“German has always felt the language that I come back to. It's given a very hard time by most people for being ugly and guttural. In fact, it's one of the most melodic, lyrical languages around. And German literature is amazing. It's just a treasury for me.”
“When eyeliner was introduced in the Twenties by Max Factor, a pioneer of Hollywood film cosmetics who began selling to the public, even the word 'makeup' was a revelation.”
“Youthquake' wasn't an entirely predictable choice for Oxford's Word of 2017. It hasn't been on the lips of an entire nation, nor is it new. But it amply fulfilled the criteria Oxford requires for selection.”
“As dialect began to be collected in the late 19th century, such words as Yorkshire's 'gobslotch' emerged, revealing the burgeoning association between gluttony and stupidity.”