Making sense of the little idiosyncrasies

All this talk of Brexit over the past week has got me thinking about the perversities of the English language.

Brexit, after all, is a neologism - a portmanteau of "British" and "exit" that barely registered in the world's consciousness mere months ago. Few thought the UK would realistically vote to leave the European Union, so from 2012 - when the word was first coined - until earlier this year, it barely saw any use.

Now the realities of a potential Brexit are all too apparent and this strange new word has been plucked from obscurity, to be plastered across the world's media.