Author: Hugh Westbrook

Turks Show Capulling Power

Protests and civil action can often be a fertile source for neologisms, with Arab Spring in particular being the most prominent example of recent years.

The situation in Turkey, which has seen protesters ranged against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over plans to redevelop a park, have also spawned a new word, and it may yet grow to become the single one to encapsulate the story.

Prime Minister Erdogan described the protesters as çapulcu, meaning looters. If it was meant to demean people, it backfired. Not only did those ranged against the Prime Minister willingly embrace the word, they even coined a verb, Capulling, pronounced Chapulling. The concept of Capulling shot across social media, the wearing of T-shirts emblazoned with the phrase ‘Every Day I’m Capulling’ became widespread, and Turkish newspapers even started referring to the protests as the Capulling movement. To be seen to be Capulling rapidly became the mark of belonging, of being part of something important.

The definition has evolved to mean roughly “to act in a peaceful and humorous manner to remind governments why they exist”. It is also showing signs of breaking out of Turkish and across the language divide, so as well being the key word of record for this event, it may cross over into other protests in other countries.

What is most interesting of course is how it represents the classic modern evolution of the new word. Somebody uses a word designed to be derogatory. Recognising the power of words, those slighted turn it on its head to make something positive out of it, something to bind people together. And then the power of social media does the rest, giving it an explosive trajectory towards establishment. It is a word of social media and identity, existing there to begin with and then gaining oxygen via those outlets as well.

Oh, and it’s a word of viral videos as well:

Is Cleansing Reduction Really a Trend?

There is an exciting new trend in the world of beauty, apparently. ‘Cleansing Reduction’ is the hot new thing. It means washing less, showering once or twice a week, in the belief that washing every day strips your skin of natural oils and bugs and it is therefore healthier to do it at a reduced frequency.

This story has had substantial pick-up around the world and lots of excited comment from people, eager to share their showering rituals or to express disgust at those loathsome folk who don’t live permanently in a vat of shower gel.

But I wonder if there is a nonsense at the heart of it. Is there really a new trend called ‘cleansing reduction’? Is there any actual proof of this new habit, beyond the results of one survey, which has been picked up by a couple of respected publications and then gone viral?

From what I can tell, the answer is no. I cannot find anything about this subject, and certainly not this new term, beyond the extensive coverage of the original story. And so it is a triumph for tissue manufacturer SCA, who commissioned the survey at the heart of this news.

I see many press releases where a company has tried to coin a new word in the hope that it will be picked up, and the new word will resonate in headlines and so gain them coverage. The tactic seldom seems to work. On this occasion it has done, and there is now a chance that the phrase cleansing reduction will indeed become a new trend, even though it probably wasn’t before, and so it will become self-fulfilling.

As cleansing is reduced so language is expanded.

Size Doesn’t Matter in Germany

It’s been an entertaining few days for linguists on the continent. Hot on the heels of the French for French Kiss finally entering the country’s dictionary comes news from Germany of the demise of the language’s longest word.

Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz was introduced in 1999 in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Meaning the almost equally tortuous “the law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef”, it came in because of EU legislation at the height of the BSE crisis. With new legislation bringing the required activity to an end, the word becomes possibly the final casualty of the farming disaster it was brought in to help eradicate.

Media outlets across the world have had fun with this story, a particular favourite being articles celebrating absurdly long words in German and other languages. Despite being a sesquipedalian, I don’t intend to repeat that.

Instead I have been thinking about German’s fabled ability to string lots of smaller words together to make one bigger word. I think the one that I remember being told about when growing up was tank, or schutzengrabenvernichtungsautomobile as Germans of a certain age liked to call them. What I think is clear about this story is that this method of coining words in German is not going to change, and at some point in the future, some other utterly unpronounceable word is going to emerge in response to a semantic chasm. No doubt we will all be reporting on that as well.

I also like the way that word has simply been killed off. The legislation goes and so does the word, no sentimentality, just efficiency. In English, it takes years of moribundity before a word heads to linguistic heaven. In German, it seems that a word can cease to be instantly.

Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz now has infinitely more recognition than it ever did when it was alive. Sadly it is not here to enjoy it. But at least the cattle are.

The Line Between Bleisure And Pain

Sometimes, a new word is so bad, it really shouldn’t be given a new life. But people will still resurrect it, hoping that this time, it will stick.

Bleisure is one such word. An ugly combination of business and leisure, it describes a type of travelling which combines, well, business and leisure. And so the Accor group has announced a revamping of its Pullman brand, with an emphasis on Bleisure travellers, giving a more luxurious experience to those travelling on business.

It seems that people have been trying to get this term to take off for at least three years, and the fact that it is still being presented as a new word in this latest release confirms that it has simply not gained any traction at all. Hotel chains were pushing it in advertorials in 2010, and others were trying to get in on the act the same year.

However, when Bleisure was submitted to Collins dictionary last year as a possible word for inclusion, it was rejected on the grounds that there was very limited evidence of it actually being used.

So while you clearly can’t keep any idea down forever in the world of marketing, the history of Bleisure travel so far suggests that it may not have much of a future, and hopefully this is a word that will disappear into the linguistic oblivion it deserves.

The French Learn How To Kiss

The French are famously protective of their language and are constantly monitoring it to ensure that Englishisms are not creeping in. Nevertheless, the language evolves like any other, and so dictionary makers in France follow their global counterparts by regularly adding new words to their volumes.

One new addition to the Petit Robert dictionary has caused quite a stir. Because it turns out, the dictionary had no word for French Kiss. Now this has been amended, and ‘Galocher’, to kiss with tongues, has been given its own entry.

The French have been quick to defend their sexual reputation, pointing out that the novelty of the word does not mean that the practice is new. Laurence Laporte of the Robert Publishing house said: “The French have always had many expressions to describe it, such as ‘kissing at length in the mouth’, but it’s true, we’ve never had one single word.”

The term French Kiss is believed to have originated at the start of the 20th century as knowledge of amorous French practices increased. It has been amusing to see that this image of the French is being stoutly defended now, despite the obvious amusement people are finding in French Kiss only now entering the dictionary.

As Ms Laporte said,  the lack of a specific term “never stopped us doing it”.

Happy To Be Sharenting

When my son was born last November, I was very conscious that he had arrived into an era very different to that of his elder sister, even though they are only a few years apart. That difference was social media.

So while I could announce my daughter’s birth in 2005 by email, and host some photos on specialised websites, that was the extent of her early digital footprint. Fast forward to 2012 and I kept on thinking about the fact that I was now having a Facebook baby, with scan pictures just the start of the tumult I subsequently unleashed.

Given that I had commented many times on this difference, I should probably have recognised with my Wordability hat on that this new concept would inevitably require a new word. But now that it has come along, I find that I don’t like the term Sharenting at all.

It’s a clever coinage, and actually encapsulates the meaning well – parenting and sharing at the same time. But I can’t help feeling there is something pejorative about it, something slightly sneery. People like to criticise others for the way that they parent, and you could easily imagine somebody gossipping about those who are sharenting as if it is some kind of fault.

I’m also not convinced anybody will really use it conversation. It is a great word for journalists and the media to use to discuss the phenomenon, but as for the rest of us, I suspect we will just note that people are sharing information about their offspring on social media in much the same way they used to share information, albeit not as quickly and not with as wide a circle. People have always shown off pictures, boasted about achievements and nattered to anyone who will listen about how their children are doing. Social networks simply allow people to do what they have always done, just on a quicker and larger scale.

Sharenting as a concept is going nowhere, and I suspect the word is here to stay. It’s just I don’t think you will hear many people saying it.

Say Goodbye to Fergie Time

As the football world bids farewell to Sir Alex Ferguson this weekend, it is worth nothing that it is not only his contribution to football that should be celebrated.

When he first shipped up at Old Trafford in 1986, nobody could have predicted that he would last until 2013. Equally, nobody would have believed you if you had said we would laud his contribution to the English Language on his departure.

But Sir Alex’s contribution to neologisms is legend. Perhaps his most famous phrase is ‘Squeaky Bum Time’, a phrase that refers to the sharp end of the football season and the nerves that emerge as the tension increases. It dates back 10 years and was given official recognition in 2005, while it is now a standard part of the lexicon for all fans when discussing any matter to do with the season’s conclusion.

The other time connection to the outgoing boss is Fergie Time, a rather pointed term not coined by the great man. This refers to the perception that Manchester United get more time added on at the end of games when they are losing than other teams, and that they often make use of this temporal largesse. Analysis has suggested that there is no basis in fact for this asssertion, but all football fans enjoy a good moan about bias being shown to rival teams, so the phrase will remain, even though Fergie himself has gone.

But you would never berate Sir Alex over these issues. After all, he is legendary in the football world for dishing out the hairdryer treatment, a particularly loud mode of berating players for not performing at their best.

So as Sir Alex disappears into the sunset, remember that it is not only the football world he has changed. He has also had a demonstrable effect on the language that we speak.

Let’s Go Showrooming

I am not a fan of going shopping. For me, it is functional, get in there, get what you need, and get out again. A browse round a bookshop is fun, of course, but that’s about it.

The rise of online shopping has changed all of that. On the one hand, you don’t need to go shopping, you can just do it on the computer. On the other, you can go shopping any hour of day or night, you are no longer spared just because the doors have been locked.

Now I’m sure we have all been guilty of going into shops, checking out a price, whipping out our phone to compare it to online competitors and then leaving to make that purchase from our living room. Maybe what we didn’t know was that we were ‘showrooming’.

Showrooming is defined as doing precisely what I have described, examining goods in a physical shop and then buying them cheaper online. When I say defined, of course, I don’t mean officially. Showrooming has not yet made it to the official annals of most dictionaries.

I am in a bit of a quandary about this word. I have often said that words emerge when there are new trends in need of a descriptor, and there is no doubt that this is a new activity and there is currently no adequate word in the language to encapsulate it. It is just that I can’t see anybody ever saying it. It feels like a term invented for the written media, for headline writers or analysts to use. Surely people will simply continue to say they are going shopping, even if they have no intention of actually buying anything while out. Surely people will use longer sentences if they want to go into details about what they have done, rather than using this particular word.

So while showrooming is likely to stick around for those who write about this phenomenon, I think it is unlikely to enter common speech for those who are actually doing it.

QWERTY Overtyped By KALQ

There have been many attempts over the years to redesign the traditional keyboard. Thus far, QWERTY has reigned supreme, and so a string of letters arranged for ease of typing has become the word by which the keyboard is known.

The latest challenger to this is designed with touch screens in mind and similarly takes its name from a string of letters in the arrangement, this time the opposite corner.

KALQ Keyboard

The KALQ keyboard is probably the only name that could have been chosen based on the arrangement, as frankly all the other lines produce unpronounceable gibberish, though I like the idea of the GTOJ keyboard challenging for typing supremacy. I wonder if the researchers made sure that there was at least one line which could be spoken to ensure their keyboard had a chance of being publicised.

Mind you, the combined brains of the University of St Andrews, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Germany and Montana Tech in the US aren’t entirely obsessed with simplicity. They described the old design as trapping people in “suboptimal text entry interfaces”. Well quite.

Another thing that has emerged from this story is the phrase ‘thumb typing’ which is being treated as something linguistically new by the media, a fair point since it doesn’t seem to feature in online dictionaries yet. It obviously means typing with your thumb.

As technology evolves, who knows whether this mode of typing will become the new default, and thumb typing will simply become known as typing in the future, with finger typing then being needed as the word for the old fashioned sort. And as new devices come on the market, who can say what parts of our body we might end up typing with. And that could open up a whole new chapter of neologisms.

Put An Apodment In Your Master Bedroom

A couple of interesting developments in the housing market in the United States are set to make subtle changes to the English language.

In Seattle, there have been efforts to introduce a new kind of micro-housing as a way of saving space. Apodments, as they are called, are small living spaces in a block with access to shared kitchens – the perfect solution it would seem for young people looking for a cheap way to live.

But they are not so perfect for many in the city, with protest forming against plans to develop these Apodments. With Seattle seemingly the only place where they might spring up, their rejection might see a natty new housing word stifled at birth. But never say never – if Seattle can change the world of coffee drinking, then it may yet revolutionise apartment dwelling.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country, the Washington Business Journal has reported on a well-established housing term that could be set to bite the dust. According to a survey, an increasing number of housebuilders in the area are ditching the term ‘Master Bedroom’ because they say it is sexist or has connotations of slavery. ‘Owner’s Bedroom’ is being used instead.

Ignore the fact that owner’s bedroom simply doesn’t feel like it means the same thing – master bedroom implies the main room, owner’s bedroom is ultimately any bedroom, because the owner, logically, owns all of them. I agree with others who feel that this is political correctness gone potty. Yes, there are elements in English which are inherently sexist, and yes, there are times when it is important to be aware of that and change it where necessary.

But I remember years ago working on the subject of ‘unequal lexical pairs’ and considering ‘Master’ and ‘Mistress’ as examples where the feminine form of the word has wildly different meanings to the masculine one. In particular I suggested that ‘Mistress of Arts’ implied you’d be paying for them. ‘Mistress Bedroom’ doesn’t sound much better. So there are issues with the word Master. But I don’t think they really apply with Master Bedroom. I think that it’s a phrase where the male-ness of the word Master is actually irrelevant. For me, it simply means the biggest room, the gender question has simply never struck me as a problem.

So I see no reason for the phrase Master Bedroom to disappear. Unless you are buying an Apodment, of course.