Wine language – false friends and confusing terms

Language is not set in stone but in some instances the evolution of a word, or misuse that slowly becomes the norm, results in a loss of precision or clarity.

In an earlier life, BW (before wine), as a language-specialist copy-editor for Cambridge University Press working mostly on books about French, German and linguistics, I had the pleasure of editing a book by Jean Aitchison, Emeritus Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford, entitled Language Change: Progress...