Hey there, it's me, Carla from Network Rail, with some important news if you're getting the trainer

for Christmas and New Year. Most of the Rail Network will remain open, however, some train services will be affected as we make improvements to the railway, from

Sunday the 24th of December to Tuesday the 2nd of January.

So go on, check before you travel at National Rail.

K.k.

forward slash Christmas.

Thanks.

You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett.

Grant, I have a new word for you?

Yes, please.

Smuse.

Uh, to smile when you watch the news?

It's not a verb.

It's a noun.

It's SME U.S. E. S-M-E-S-E.

Smuse.

And it's a dialectal term from Sussex in Southeast England and it means the gap in the base of a hedge made by the regular passage of a small animal.

And this is in current use. Yes. Oh, that's adorable. Well, I thought you'd like it and I wanted to share it because I learned it from a passionate

lyrical book of essays and glossaries called Landmarks. It's by the British author Robert McFarland. The book is an effort

to reanimate our connection with nature by collecting more than 2,000 terms that are used

...