Susie Dent’s tips and tricks to add muscle to a child’s vocabulary

By Sally Weale Education correspondent · The Guardian World

In a bid to combat the impact of screen-time creep, the Countdown word supremo has a few suggestions Children’s vocabulary shrinking as reading loses out to screen time, says Susie Dent Children’s vocabulary is shrinking as reading loses out to screen time, the Countdown lexicographer Susie Dent has suggested , as she urged families to read, talk and play word games to boost language development. Dent, who also co-presents Channel 4’s Secret Genius with Alan Carr, is fronting a new campaign – working with an unexpected partner, Soreen malt loaf – aimed at boosting children’s vocabulary at snack time. kerfuffle One of Soreen’s choices, kerfuffle is from Scots that describes a commotion or fuss. Children love it because of its sound, but it also adds a touch of humour to an otherwise tricky situation. mellifluous Not only does this word have a pleasing sound, fulfilling the very quality it describes, but its etymology is also gorgeous – mellifluous comes from the Latin for flowing like honey. thrill I chose this one because of its secret life. Something thrilling today is always positive, but in its earliest incarnation, to thrill meant to pierce someone with a sword rather than with excitement. The literal meaning of thrill was a hole, which is why our nostrils began as our nose-thrills or nose-holes. apricity This is one of the many words in the Oxford English Dictionary that were recorded only once before fading away like a linguistic mayfly. Apricity, from 1623, means the warmth of the sun on a winter’s day. The word is as beautiful as the sensation it describes. susurrus Say this word out loud and you will know its meaning instantly. Susurrus comes from the Latin for whispering and describes the rustling of leaves in a summer breeze. bags of mystery This Victorian nickname for sausages always makes me smile. It was inspired by the fact that you can never quite know what’s in them. snerdle English has a vast lexicon for snuggling, from nuddling, neezling, and sno…