Sunday, November 14, 2010

Bromance isn't a real word, is it? Is it?

Great news!  The Oxford Dictionary has released a new pile of completely legit words you can use in your next manuscript.

Here's a sample, shamelessly lifted from the Time newsfeed:



chill pill a notional pill taken to make someone calm down
chillax calm down and relax
turducken a roast dish consisting of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey (Emmeline:  We're only just thinking of this?)
bargainous costing less than is usual or than might be expected; cheap or relatively cheap (I'm so using this one.)
staycation holiday spent in one's home country
fussbudget a fussy person (This wasn't a word?  Huh.)
vuvuzela long horn blown by fans at soccer matches
national treasure someone/thing regarded as emblematic of anation's cultural heritage
buzzkill a person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect
social media websites and applications used for social networking
microblogging the posting of very short entries on a blog
netbook small light laptop
dictionary attack an attempt to gain illicit access to a computer system by using a very large set of words to generate potential passwords
paywall an arrangement whereby access is restricted to users who have paid to subscribe to a website
freemium a business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free of charge while more advanced features must be paid for
automagically automatically and in a way that seems ingenious, inexplicable, or magical (Love it!)
carbon capture and storage the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels
geoengineering manipulation of environmental processeses in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming
toxic debt debt which has a high risk of default
deleveraging the process or practice of reducing the level of one's debt by rapidly selling one's assets
overleveraged having taken on too much debt
quantitative easing the introduction of new money into the money supply by a central bank
exit strategy a pre-planned means of extricating oneself from a situation
overthink think about (something) too much or for too long
catastrophizing view or present a situation as considerably worse than it actually is 
soft skills personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people
matchy-matchy excessively colour-coordinated
LBD little black dress
frenemy a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry
cheeseball lacking taste, style, or originality
cool hunter a person whose job it is to make observations or predictions about new styles and trends  (Awesome!)
steampunk a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advance technology
tweetup a meeting organized by means of posts on Twitter
bromance a close but non-sexual relationship between two men
wardrobe malfunction an instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position
defriend another term for unfriend (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site)
Interweb the Internet
This particular list doesn't include some of my faves--BFF (do I need to explain this one?), LMAO (see previous comment), trampstamp (apparently, a tattoo on a woman's lower back) or hashtag (see brackets two and three).  
I resolve to weave at least three of these into conversation this week, even though, in my house an LBD refers to a cocktail frank (also known as Little Boys...)
E x

4 comments:

  1. Catastrophizing? Really? Wow we are getting dumber as a race aren't we?

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  2. LOL - I actually thought these were cool. And language does change. Just ask those after Shakespeare came around ;)) Though I must admit Interweb gets a little bit under my skin.

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  3. Hi Liia,

    Mmm, a couple of those words are a very strong argument for that, I do believe, or is it possible we're getting lazier? :)
    Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. Hi Eleni!

    Lovely to see you here! I must admit, words like automagically tickle my fancy. I often make up words when talking to my kids (a little dangerous when they go to school and use them!) so I'd like to think I'm doing my bit for the evolution of language. :)

    Yes, interweb is daft. Is interwebz worse? I think, yes. Funnily, as I'm typing these new words, spellcheck is actively hating them. Teehee.

    E x

    ReplyDelete

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