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  • Ten Questions with Susan Butler

    Jul 29, 2014 | 0 Comments

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    Macquarie in the news

    Jill Rowbotham from The Weekend Australian Magazine interviewed Sue Butler about Macquarie, dictionaries and language.

    Ten Questions: Susan Butler, lexicographer, 65 | Jill Rowbotham | The Weekend Australian Magazine


  • As my dear old grammar says, don’t be an it’s twit: Kerry Parnell ponders the lost art of spelling

    Jul 27, 2014 | 0 Comments

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    Macquarie in the news

    IT’S not hard. It’s 'it’s and its, your and you’re'. Got it? The ones with apostrophes are short for 'it is' and 'you are' and the other two are possessive.

    Confused? They’re, their, there, you’ll be OK. Read more...

    As my dear old grammar says, don’t be an it’s twit: Kerry Parnell ponders the lost art of spelling | Kerry Parnell | Daily Telegraph


  • Henry Lawson and the Christmas pudding

    Jul 24, 2014 | 0 Comments

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    It came as a great surprise to me to find that Henry Lawson hated the Christmas pudding.

    In his short story The ghosts of many Christmases he says:

    And speaking of plum pudding, I consider it one of the most barbarous institutions of the British. It is a childish, silly, savage superstition, it must have been a savage inspiration, looking at it all round – but then it isn’t so long since the British were savages.

    Read more...


  • Susan Butler Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary: Dictionaries, Definitions and Deviations

    Jul 23, 2014 | 0 Comments

    Recorded at IPAA Victoria's 2014 Writers Seminar, Susan Butler reflects on what public servants need to know about the way language changes and the role of dictionaries play in helping shape and influence the way we write.

    Susan Butler Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary: Dictionaries, Definitions and Deviations | 2014 Writing Seminar, IPAAVic | 2014


  • Grumpy

    Jul 22, 2014 | 0 Comments

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    Premier Colin Barnett has described the WA electorate as ‘grumpy’  for a range of reasons. This has generated a certain amount of research into the word in that state – people want to be clear what constitutes grumpiness in political terms. Read more...


  • Susan Butler on ABC's Radio National talking about dictionaries keeping up

    Jul 16, 2014 | 0 Comments

    Dictionaries Keeping Up

     


  • Cockatoo settler

    Jul 02, 2014 | 1 Comment

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    Folklore has it that the cockatoo farmer got his name from scratching for a living in the dirt like a cockatoo after seed. Cockatoo farmers had very few possessions – a few cows, a bullock team, a bark hut was typical.

    The true story is even more interesting. Read more ...