51�Թ�

Fiona and Ben were told by a midwife that they would be better off getting tongue-tie surgery, also known as a lingual frenotomy, privately, as there would be a long wait on the NHS.

He also suggested Patient A underwent a lingual tongue-tie release, which he said would allow her to rest with her tongue on the roof of her mouth and strengthen the jaw.

It seemed likely that the author was aware of the potential of those words to challenge “She sells sea shells by the sea shore” in the lingual dexterity sweepstakes.

Davies’ gift for caustic witticisms is at its full strength in these scenes, in which Siegfried, for all his own lingual flair, is often overmatched by his paramours for sheer drawing-room-comedy vitriol.

She reached for a bit of lingual antiquity and metaphor that tracks closely to her own move to Vermont.