„Underperform” – a face mai puţin decât era de aşteptat ori s-a crezut posibil, folosit tradiţional în legătură cu echipa de fotbal a Angliei – este unul dintre cei 1.000 de termeni adăugaţi în cea de-a treisprezecea ediţie a dicţionarului britanic numărul unu ca vânzări.

Această ediţie a dicţionarului, publicat prima oară în 1872, marchează prima introducere a termenilor în dicţionar având ca sursă folosirea activă a acestora de către mulţime. Este cunoscut pentru includerea termenilor neobişnuiţi şi este popular printre cei care rezolvă cuvinte încrucişate. Un cuvânt trebuie să demonstreze „influenţa sa de durată asupra limbii pentru a evita ca expresiile cu viaţă scurtă sau fade să fie introduse,” au declarat purtătorii de cuvânt ai dicţionarului.

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Co-workers sympathized as a woman complained that her back was really sore from moving furniture.

„Why don’t you wait till your husband gets home?” someone asked.

„I could,” she told the group, „but the couch is easier to move if he’s not on it.”

Husband arriving home with an enormous dog to indignant wife who is surrounded by 3 small children:
„But I did consult you — you said a Great Dane was the last thing we needed around here.”

Familia ca temă de discuţie la testul oral, pentru testarea IELTS

Nina met Rosey at the grocery store one day. Nina sympathetically said, „Oh, Rosey, I was so sorry to hear that you buried your husband the other day.”

Rosey replied, „I had to, he was dead.”

In the middle of lunch, Mrs. Slotnick is interrupted by a committee of workmen who report that her husband has just been badly wounded on the job and is in critical condition at the hospital. She does not say a word and continues eating.

They say again, „Do you hear what we are telling you, Mrs. Slotnick? Your husband was hurt and he is in critical condition!”

„Gentlemen,” she says, „I heard absolutely every word. And as soon as I finish this soup, you are going to hear such a scream!”