Shill and squelette

A couple of recent finds:

First, a BBC News Magazine article on 'shill reviewing'. I've never come across the AmE word 'shill' before but I have encountered a few shill (or false) customer reviews in my time. The article also lists some other striking terms such as 'Amazon bombing' and 'Astroturfing'.

Second, the word 'squelette' (as in French for 'skeleton'), meaning a 'ruined' building that was never actually completed. Stan Carey from the blog Sentence first drew my attention to this on Twitter; thanks, Stan.

Squelettes in Egypt

(Photo by P Snelling.)

Typo: foul-lane carriageway

Stan from the excellent language blog Sentence first has sent in this scan from the Galway City Tribune, pointing out the typo at the end of the first par (as usual, click on the image to see a larger version):


He writes:

The road in question is a nice little jam-generator, so it's a particularly apt typo. I am a little conflicted, because it's a good newspaper, but amusement trumps politics again.

Thanks, Stan!