We hope this etymology isn’t too scary. ‘Haunt' originally meant “to visit often” and “to continually seek the company of.” In the 1500s, ‘haunt’ began to mean “to have a disquieting or harmful effect on,” as in “that problem may come back to haunt you.”

Ok, here we go: Much of my work concerns the history and return of scientific racism. I’ve written extensively about attempts to resurrect the shuffling corpse of race science and eugenics for many years. Bigotry dressed up as biology. 1/n

Word of the day is ‘struthious’ (18th century): prone to ignoring unwelcome facts and letting a situation worsen without any intervention. From the Latin for ‘ostrich-like’.

This is what great writing looks like:

'A room without books is like a body without a soul.' Marcus Tullius Cicero

English: The People’s Language™️

We think about this tweet at least once a week.

It's Autism Awareness Month, so let's bust a pretty common myth about autism. "Everyone is a little autistic." This is not true... so, let's talk about it.

Word of the day is ‘fling-brand’ (17th century): one who takes pleasure in breeding dissent and argument, purely for the sake of it.

“When autism meets ADHD, it’s a curious form of alchemy… The paradoxes of AuDHD can camouflage each other or – on the surface at least – cancel each other out, which is why some AuDHDers experience missed or incorrect diagnoses.” This is a great read:

Tsundoku, from Japanese, is the act of buying yet another book that you fully intend to read, but never quite get round to.

Hello , I’ve written another letter to @antanddec about the ongoing appalling abuse of animals on @ITV programme @imacelebrity . I’ve tried to be polite but my patience has run thin . If you agree with what it says please RT . #ImACeleb

Here’s a reminder that it ain’t over til it’s over. This morning I had 19,000 words of the 50,000 I need to win #NaNoWriMo. Thanks to great support and accountability (word crawls rule), I have passed the 30k mark. The next four days will be tough, but I’m not calling it yet!

Apricate (17th century): to turn your face to the winter sun and bask in it for a moment. (I know, I’ve said it before, but it’s too beautiful to forget.)

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words, which feels a bit passive-aggressive...

Congratulations to everyone! It’s such a great competition, I’m looking forward to reading the anthology.

Today's the day!

Etymology of the day is ‘poppycock’, meaning ‘nonsense’. It came from the Dutch ‘pappekak’, meaning either ‘doll’s excrement’ or ‘soft shit’.

Prepare to haunt and be haunted. It’s time for https://t.co/OeJELgyBOj’s spooky writing contest, #HauntingHooks: Haunted House Edition! The winning entry will be chosen by none other than guest judge @RL_Stine and announced on Halloween! https://t.co/EJkpYqfkQQ

Word of the day once again is ‘arsle’, from the 19th century: to go backwards on a job in hand rather than make any progress at all (literally, ‘to shuffle backwards’).