Derek Bousfield

You might call an unpleasant or difficult experience a nightmare. Derek's daughter used the word mare, short for nightmare, to describe her terrible day at work. But she was exaggerating. Her day wasn't really terrible, more like strange or annoying. Can you remember a time when what you said wasn't really what you meant, Beth?

But first, I have a question for you, Beth. The word hyperbole comes from two ancient Greek words, hupa and balo. But what is their literal meaning? Is it A, to overthrow, B, to overspeak, or C, to overthink?

I have no idea, Pippa. I'm going to say to overspeak. Okay, we'll find out the answer at the end of the programme. It's not just hyperbole that changes the meaning of words. Its opposite, something called understatement, has the same effect too. Understatement involves de-emphasising something. For example, imagine you were served an awful meal in a restaurant, but instead of saying how bad the food was, you just said it was less than perfect.

Another area where the meaning of words can be easily misunderstood is apologising. Here Michael Rosen responds to an imaginary situation where his toe gets accidentally stepped on by Derek Bousfield for BBC Radio 4 programme Word of Mouth.

If someone tells you it's all good, they could actually be feeling miffed, an adjective meaning slightly annoyed or hurt by someone's behaviour. But no matter how annoyed you are, you probably don't want to get into a barney, a loud argument or quarrel. So you say something like it's all good or no worries and move on.

Yes, you thought the ancient Greek words hooper and ballo meant overspeak, but the answer was actually a, to overthrow. Hooper means beyond and ballo means I throw. Oh well. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt, starting with mare, short for nightmare, meaning an unpleasant or difficult experience.

If you take yourself too seriously, you consider yourself and your actions more important than they really are. In Britain, this is a no-no, a way of behaving that is not socially acceptable. The done thing, on the other hand, is what you are expected to do in a particular social situation. If you're miffed, you're slightly annoyed by someone's behaviour. And finally, a barney is a loud argument or quarrel.