MED Magazine - Issue 44 - April 2007

New words of the month

A review of 2006 in twelve words
by Kerry Maxwell

‘Blogs, vlogs … folksonomies, podcasts. Will new media have as big an effect on business, society and politics as they are having on dictionaries?’

The above is a quotation from The Economist, which appeared on 8th April 2006. It captures, in a nutshell, the issues surrounding the fascinating developments in language that we’ve been continuing to look at in MED Magazine and Word of the Week. New words and their potential inclusion in the dictionary have become an increasingly high-profile topic in recent years, and this is due in no small part to the technological advances which are providing an even greater choice of ways to communicate. We need new words to describe new technology, and new technology in turn provides the platform to propagate other kinds of new words within all walks of life – domains such as politics, sport, leisure, fashion, finance and other classic preoccupations in society.

In this article, we take a look at some of the newest additions to the English language in 2006.

January

Christmas came and went – phew, all that shopping, present-wrapping and card-writing is over for another year! But what on earth are you going to do with that extra set of towels Auntie Sheila bought you because they were “three for two”, or that rather cumbersome vegetable rack that doesn’t fit in the kitchen? If the festive season left you with a whole load of unwanted gifts that you have no room to store, you could start the new year by embracing the new concept of freecycling. A blend of free and recycling, freecycling is a way of getting rid of stuff that you don’t want but that is too good to simply throw away. Freecyclers post information on an electronic forum about what they have on offer, or what they might be looking for, and the goods are collected or exchanged at mutual convenience. The only rule is that no money changes hands.

‘In response to WANTED postings, we were able to freecycle my son’s old bunk beds when he got a new loft bed from IKEA; and we freecycled our former kitchen table and chairs (which were of good quality and needed a nice new home) to some people who lost everything in a house fire … Today I was able to pick up some plants from a lady who was freecycling perennials in her garden.’
(Personal weblog, 29th September 2006)

February

It might be the month of Valentine’s Day, and thoughts of love and romance, but maybe it’s just a good friendship that you’re looking for – purely platonic and not all that heavy relationship stuff. If that’s the case, maybe you should consider taking part in a bit of speed-friending. A new twist on the earlier concept of speed-dating, speed friending involves getting together at an agreed venue with a group of ‘pals-to-be’. You get five minutes to chat to a potential soul mate before a bell rings prompting you to move on to the next person. Speed friending events cost around $20 (£10) to participate in, a small price to pay for a potential ‘friend-for-life’.

‘All alone? if you need more homies, the solution may be as easy as Speed Friending … It works much like Speed Dating, except without the pick-up lines … Of course, not everyone is best-friends-forever material. “One guy was, like, 48,” says Rebecca Taylor, a 24-year-old accountant and Speed Friender.’
(Newsweek, 6th February 2006)

March

On 26th March 2006, a smoking ban in pubs, clubs and restaurants was introduced in Scotland, and from the summer of 2007, the ban will be introduced throughout the rest of the UK. Similar bans already exist in many parts of the United States and Europe. But maybe this isn’t altogether bad news for the smokers among us. Smoking might damage their health, but it seems it could do wonders for their love life, since stepping outside a bar or restaurant for a quick ciggie could provide the opportunity to do a spot of smirting (smoking and flirting). Far easier than trying to strike up a conversation at a crowded bar, smirting avoids any introductory awkwardness by simply asking for a light. The five-minute lifespan of a cigarette means that the smirter can either light up again or go back inside, depending on how they feel about the other smoker.

‘Smirting is the practice of flirting over a smoke at pub doorways. A great way to meet people, it’s almost worth taking up smoking for.’
(living-dublin.com, 2005)

April

In April 2006, blogger and new author Julie Powell was awarded the first ever Blooker prize. No, this isn’t a misspelling of the coveted Booker (literary award), but really is Blooker, because Julie won the prize for authoring a blook. Just when the world seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that the printed page was being overthrown by electronic media, blogs, online journals, gave birth to blooks, texts made of real bits of paper. A combination of blog and book, a blook is simply a book which is based on an online weblog. Julie’s blook Julie and Julia began life as an online diary describing her attempts to master the French cookery recipes from a 1961 cookbook by Julia Child. The blog built up into a cult following and the subsequent blook sold over 100,000 copies. Budding authors can now follow Julie’s footsteps and through publishing websites like www.lulu.com, pay to have their blog printed and made into a blook.

‘There aren’t any blook stores yet. Nor is there a New York Review of Blooks. But the blook – a book by a blogger – is a growing presence in the publishing biz. …’
(U.S. News & World Report, 13th March 2006)

May

Spring is well underway by now, and many of us will be enjoying the great outdoors again, taking to the tennis courts, mowing our lawns, walking in parks and sipping drinks in the open air. Suddenly life seems sociable again and we have so much more contact with people than we did when we were cooped up at home during those dark winter months. However it’s the 21st century, and if you’re considering shaking hands with someone as they meet you on the street or beat you at a tennis match, consider the health risks. Under the threat of a potential pandemic of avian flu, the World Health Organization has advocated the new concept of an elbow bump as a replacement for the humble handshake. The elbow bump, a simple touching of elbows, is a substitute for the ‘filthy’ practice of shaking hands, in which someone who has politely sneezed into a palm could pass a virus across to other hands, whose owners then put a finger in an eye or mouth. Elbow bumps appear to eliminate the possibility of spreading germs – only a contortionist could sneeze onto their elbow!

‘Elbow bump. No, that isn’t the latest type of punch from the National Hockey League or Ultimate Fighting. It’s the way that the World Health Organization would like us to greet each other from now on. Yep, the handshake is seen as too efficient a way to spread disease – germs go from their nose, to their hands, to your hands to your nose and eyes – yuck!’
(ABC News, 15th February 2006)

June

June, in Britain the month of the longest day - we can come home from work or college and still enjoy several hours of daylight. But just how ‘light’ is ‘daylight’ in the 21st century? The expression global dimming has now begun to enter the spotlight amid continuing concerns about the long-term welfare of our environment. Based on the more familiar term global warming, global dimming describes a gradual decline in sunlight caused by air pollution. The phenomenon was first observed back in 2001, and though initially it met with some skepticism, more recent research confirms it to be a very real problem acknowledged by scientists across the globe. As well as disrupting the world’s rainfall patterns by shielding the oceans from the full power of the sun, the most alarming aspect of global dimming is that it may be masking the intensity of global warming. Current research appears to indicate that warming from greenhouse gases has been offset by a strong cooling effect from global dimming - in effect the two problems have been cancelling each other out. This means that the climate may in fact be even more sensitive to the greenhouse effect than was originally thought.

‘Noticed less sunshine lately? Scientists have discovered that the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface has been falling over recent decades. ... Essentially, the phenomenon called “global dimming” may mean that even the direst predictions about the rate of global warming have been seriously underestimated.’
(ABC TV, 21st March 2005)

July

The World Cup is now in full swing in Germany, but for the England footballers, talk focuses less on the game of ‘two halves’ and more on the game of ‘other halves’. Suddenly the new noun WAG appears all over the media - nothing to do with the movement of a dog’s tail, but in fact an acronym of Wives and Girlfriends. The WAGs are the high-profile partners of famous footballers, and whilst their menfolk shoulder the aspirations of the nation, they have a reputation for designer shopping by day, and partying by night. Off the pitch and on the tennis courts, coverage of the Wimbledon championships jumps on the linguistic bandwagon with talk of the WOWs (Wives of Wimbledon). However, unlike previous years, this was definitely not Timbledon. The British public’s obsession with Henmania gave way to Murraymania, with former British number one Tim Henman making a swift exit from the competition whilst Scottish player Andy Murray made it through to the fourth round, with hundreds of fans watching him play from the newly renamed Murray Mound.

‘So, to what paradigm shall we fit the Wags, the footballers’ wives and girlfriends, who are currently making a better job of holding the nation’s interest … than are the lacklustre attempts by their menfolk to represent the country’s interests in the World Cup?’
(The Guardian, 17th June 2006)

‘With Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski gone, Murraymania dominates for British fans after his first-round dismissal of Chile’s Nicolás Massú on Tuesday.’
(The Guardian, 29th June 2006)

‘More than 42,000 “Murraymaniacs” supporting their hero on Wimbledon’s “Henman Hill” sat in tears as he slumped to a straight sets defeat.’
(The Sun, 4th July 2006)

August

August - as well as being the traditional month to 'get away from it all', it’s also a time many people associate with large-scale open air events, from sailing regattas and horseracing through to summer proms and pop concerts. If you’re a middle-aged father and would rather take your
off-spring to a couple of rock festivals than a week of bucket-and-spading at a popular seaside resort, then you might be described as a rock dad. Rock dads are the kind of forty-something guys who teach their kids the chords of Smoke on the Water, lend them their old T-shirts and camp with them at rock festivals during the summer.

‘Good show from all the other entrants that found the guts to admit their Rock Dad status. Luckily said guts are perfectly easy to find, as they are usually jutting out over our belts …’
(The Word, July 2006)

September

The weather might still be warm and sunny, but for millions of school children across the UK, the summer is officially over and the classroom beckons once again. But something seems different this term. There are noticeably fewer cars on the roads during the morning school run, and you’ve regularly spotted an orderly group of walking children flanked by adults in fluorescent tabards. A likely explanation is that your local school has joined others in a new initiative called a walking bus. In an effort to encourage walking as a healthy and environmentally-friendly option, a walking bus is a group of young children who walk to and from school supervised by two or more adults, usually with a ‘driver’ at the front and a ‘conductor’ at the rear.

‘Transport minister announces “walking buses” … A “walking bus” has absolutely nothing to do with roads, but instead is meant to increase traffic on the sidewalks as it gets kids walking to school again. … Walking bus programs are being implemented in primary schools all over the UK, where children are escorted from a “bus stop” to school in packs by teachers or community volunteers.’
(Environmental Transport Association, UK, 22nd November 2006)

October

You might only be just packing away your summer T-shirts and shorts, but hey, October has arrived and there are only 85 shopping days left till Christmas! By now, shelves packed with Christmas cards, plush Santas and snowmen, wrapping paper and Christmas puddings will be a familiar sight every time you go into your local supermarket. You might already have eaten a mince pie or two. And the bizarre thing is, all this seems to happen earlier each year. It’s now not uncommon to see Christmas merchandise popping up in retail outlets as early as August, and once Halloween is out of the way at the end of October, all things Christmas will dominate every shop and department store. This ever-increasing encroachment of Christmas on the rest of the year is now referred to as Christmas creep, a phenomenon fuelled by profit-hungry retailers, who hope that having Christmas items out in early autumn may generate additional purchases, not just early ones.

‘Grinch? No, but the “Christmas creep” is here … It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – and it’s only October … Santa isn’t here yet, but retailers already are stocking shelves with Christmas merchandise, in some cases setting up Christmas trees and holiday lighting way before Thanksgiving and even pre-empting Halloween.’
(Associated Press, 26th October 2006)

November

Computer memory, it seems, we just can’t get enough of it. By November 2006, computer and electrical retailers on both sides of the Atlantic are quantifying memory capacity in terms of terabytes, and offering products containing terabyte hard drives. A terabyte is a unit of computer measurement approximately equal to 1,000,000,000,000 bytes - that’s 10¹² or one trillion bytes. Half a terabyte (500 gigabytes) is enough capacity for 80 hours of high-definition (HD) video, and a full terabyte will allow storage of a massive 240,000 songs. If music’s your thing, remember that MP3 players are now yesterday’s news and you should put an MP4 player on your Christmas list. An MP4 player, as well as storing your music, will allow you to watch video material (including full length feature films), download video podcasts, voice record, listen to FM radio and play games. If only it could make you a cup of tea …

‘If there’s a storage fanatic in your family, a perfect gift could be coming for her or him toward the end of the year: 1-terabyte hard drives. Desktop hard drives holding 1 terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, of storage will likely debut in 2006 …’
(USA Today, 15th August 2006)

‘Mp4 players have been exceedingly popular in China for more than a year, but have only recently been introduced to the American market to challenge Mp3 technology and the popular iPod players with improved compression rates, video compatibility and expanded functions.’
(PRWeb, 6th November 2006)

December

December again, and another 21st century Christmas. Many of us was houseblinging (covering our home with a dazzling display of Christmas lights), and if we were a responsible houseblinger, we also placed a collection box by the gate for a local charity. The politically correct among us were cautious of the word ‘Christ-mas’ and wrote Winterval cards, made Winterval puddings and iced Winterval cake. We might have chuckled at the fibre-optic tree in our friend’s bathroom and called them a yulezilla (someone who goes totally overboard with Christmas decorations). If we were considering taking our little ones to the local department store’s Christmas grotto, we needed to beware of Santa frauds (poorly costumed Santa Claus impersonators). At the office party, we watched out for the mistleho (someone who spends a bit too much time under the mistletoe), and if you’re a deshopper (wearing something new but intending to return it for a full refund) you had to carry that glass of red wine very carefully! And when all the presents had been opened and we’d smiled gratefully for the cappuccino maker and boxed set of Elvis movies, we could always spend the new year using websites like eBay™ to help us do some regifting!

Further reading

The Economist, Vol. 379, No. 8472, 8th April 2006

For more information about new and topical words and phrases, read Kerry's Word of the Week articles on the MED Resource Site.