Watching the final episode of Melvyn Bragg’s The Adventure of the English language I was struck by

Amazing to think that as recently as 1935 words like nearby and colourful were regarded as ‘loathsome’ interlopers rather than just English.

Also, what happened to ‘help make’? And when did ‘worth-while’ lose its hyphen?

You have to love the English language!

(Excellent programme too, by the way, for anyone with an interest in that sort of thing.)