I have been delighted this week to have had the opportunity to draw on some of the less well-used corners of my vocabulary. I had an email to write that called out for the word obviate and palimpsest came up in conversation yesterday. Better yet, I had the opportunity to learn a new word that was new to me, vexillology.

I picked that word – the study of flags – up from a brilliant TED talk by Roman Mars: Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you’ve never noticed. Having city flags seems to be less common in the UK than the US but I don’t think many of the examples shown on Wikipedia would pass the design rules he espouses.

What is your favourite word of the week?