The Word Spy is big fun – especially if you’re a word nerd. It’s going straight onto my links list. It’s apparently been around a while, but I’ve only just discovered it, and one of the things it proves is that the Internet is expanding the language in some wonderful ways. Are you a metrosexual? No? Then perhaps you’re a hasbian. Have you ever indulged in any scam-baiting? This is a slightly worrying post, because I’m thinking that maybe everyone knows these words and I only don’t because I’ve been living in a non-English speaking country for too long. These neologisms don’t seem to play such a big part in Spanish culture; the tendency is simply to use the English word. In fact, this very evening I was talking to a friend about TV soccer commentaries and how the commentators don’t pick up their own accidental puns. There used to be a Barcelona player called Amor, and whenever he'd to commit a foul (falta, which also means “lack”), you’d hear the commentator say “Falta de Amor” and expect some humorous comment to follow – but it never came. Anyway, may you never suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia. (The Word Spy discovered through Tudogs).

Luis del Val, a regular contributor to PdS, has won a literary award, the Premio Ateneo de Novela de Sevilla, for his novel Las amigas imperfectas. In the words of the jury, it’s "a story about friendship between women and the persistence of feelings down the years”.
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