Don’t let our vocabulary disappear

I was watching Big Brother recently . . . for research purposes only, of course, writes blogger Emma Suddaby.

Actually, cards on the table, I’m prepared to be one of the few people over 30 who’ll admit to watching Big Brother. I think it’s a fascinating concept for a TV programme, and an even more fascinating, if often disturbing window onto our society - a snapshot of Britain today.

I remember, before Big Brother burst onto our screens, reading about a Scandinavian TV company who’d had the idea of shutting a wide-ranging group of people in a house that bristled with cameras, 24 hours a day and with no access to the outside world, then making TV out of their antics.

I thought it sounded the most ridiculous TV show I’d ever heard of. How boring, I thought . . . who wants to watch a load of people sitting around a house for several months?

And that is why I’m not a multi-millionaire TV executive! They know their onions because, love it or hate it, Big Brother’s now big business, and one that has created its own stable of reality stars occupying their own category on the fame-ladder, the z-list.

I love watching the true, nitty-gritty interaction that goes in the group. The moments they’re unaware of being watched, usually about half-way through the series, when they’ve started to forget they’re in a television programme. The cracks are starting to show and the carefully crafted fronts are starting to slip.

Last week, two housemates managed to shock me.

For those familiar with the cast this year, Rachael was told in the Diary Room to continue with something “at her own peril”. To which she went all round-eyed and confused and asked “what does that mean?”

What does that mean? Doesn’t everyone know what that means? I can hardly believe that a British girl in her twenties, really doesn’t know what “at your peril” means.

Shocker number two has a similar theme, Housemate Lisa was reading a love-note from her partner Mario (former housemate, now evicted, don’t ask!) which read something along the lines of: “The time we’ve spent apart has only underpinned our love for one another.” To which she started waving the note around wailing: “What does underpinned mean?” For goodness sake, you don’t have to know what underpinned means, it’s self-explanatory!

I can’t sit by and watch the Great British Vocabulary disappear into a bland mish-mash of predictable street slang and text talk, so I’m taking action.

I can’t help much with world poverty, the plight of our atmosphere or dwindling rainforests, but what I can do is remind readers of some of the brilliant words lurking in the background of our language, so we can all brighten up our vocabularies a bit.

From today, I’m introducing the all-new addition to Life & All About It . . . it’s Word of The Week!

• Inspirational Emma Suddaby shares her ” highs, lows - and various murky places inbetween” - with her blog. Emma, a finalist in the 2007 Shropshire Star Woman of the Year competition, was diagnosed with aggressive, destructive rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 22. She later won a dream flying scholarship with the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled and now holds a National Private Pilot’s Licence.