Top 10 Q&As of 2021

Q: Hey, it’s the end of 2021!

A: Somehow, yes.

Q: What a year.

A: It was a year, that’s true.

Q: So, they want us to lock down our 10 favourite Q&As of 2021.

A: Please don’t say “lock down”.

Q: Choose? Select? Curate? Throw darts at a wall?

A: Much better.

Q: I always find picking our favourite 10 difficult.

A: That’s true – they’re all deserving.

Q: Well, most of them. A few weeks there I was definitely phoning it in.

A: Yes, but that was because of social distancing.

Q: True. So, without further ado…

A: Here are our top 10 Q&A posts for 2021… Enjoy!

Near the start of the year, we asked the question that no one ever asks at a spelling bee – WHY is it called a spelling BEE? Not only did we discover the answer, but we could also use it in a sentence…

Any gains in 2021 certainly felt hard earnt. Wait. Hard earned? Oh dear. In this discussion, we looked at “earnt” vs “earned” and discovered some classic Australian beer ads along the way…

Famous for bicycles, windmills and a perpetual fear of flooding, The Netherlands has always struggled with its identity. Is it “THE Netherlands” or just “Netherlands”? And wait, what’s “Holland”? We get to the bottom (below sea level) of this low-lying mystery…

In world terms, Australia’s capital cities are relatively new. But they each still have a story to tell about how they got their names. We share them here in one of the only trips around Australia that WAS possible in 2021…

They’re an Aussie favourite and loved all around the world. But how exactly did the humble “Tim Tam” biscuit get its name? We go in search of the delicious truth…

Even the experts struggle with this confusing word distinction (dis-stink-tion?). Because while you might get away with speaking them fast enough to not notice the difference, when written, each has a different meaning…

We see them everywhere, from sales to pharmaceutical ads – the humble “asterisk” sitting innocently about the “8” key and ready to dish out fineprint at a moment’s notice. Simple enough. So, why then, do so many of us call it an “asterix”?

Things like “Wikipedia” and “Wiki Leaks” are commonplace in the landscape of 2021. But where exactly did the “WIKI” part come from? And what makes something a wiki? We catch a bus and go in search of its origins…

Often tossed about as nonsense words, what is the REAL story around the terms “flotsam” and “jetsam”? Is there a difference between the two? In this fascinating discussion, we head out to sea in search of etymological treasure…

And finally, we took on a small four-letter word that has done a lot of heavy lifting in the 21st century – the “meme”. We were surprised to discover its real origins and learn exactly what counts as one…

Of course, that’s just a fifth of the many topics we explored this year. Explore our complete list and you’ll have enough reading material to keep you cursing the English language all summer long!