The Last Post: Adventures with the Written Word

Words evolve. Their spellings and definitions can vary over time, and sometimes terms are replaced altogether. This article explores the changing meaning of the word infrastructure . Aerial view of highway intersection. Designed by  Freepik Etymology The Oxford Dictionaries website defines infrastructure as ‘ The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities… needed for the operation of a society or enterprise ’. The word was coined in 19th-Century France and literally means ‘substructure’. It was originally used to refer to foundations for  railways, roads or buildi ngs . Changing Context Usage didn’t really take off until the middle of the 20th Century, when Western Europe was simultaneously rebuilding structures after World War II and preparing for the Cold War. The New York Times u sed the word in 1952 to refer to the vast programme of ‘… Allied airfields, barracks, railways, roads, depots and joint headquarters … ’ being developed by NATO . Beyond Publi...

Happy Halloween 2025! You may be trick-or-treating this year, attending a costume party or hiding at home with the lights off. But are you familiar with these phobias, and their origins? Unusual phobias: James Hutchinson + AI coulrophobia , mass noun : an extreme fear of clowns. The word’s origins are uncertain, although the Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that the prefix coulro- may be related to k ō lobatheron ('stilt') in Greek. cyberphobia , noun : an extreme fear of computers or technology; cyber- is a back-formation from cybernetics . hexakosioihexekontahexapbobia , noun : the intense fear of the number 666  (known to Christians as ‘the number of the beast’, in reference to the Book of Revelation). However, the oldest surviving copy of the text actually gives the number as 616 . See The Other Number of the Beast: 616 . pantophobia , noun : a fear of everything, or generalised anxiety. From pantos (‘all’) in Greek, and dating back to the 19th century. Original...