Category: Wordability In Brief

Short entries on new words and usages which Wordability has spotted and
enjoyed

Will the Olinguito Ride the Hyperloop?

Two new words for brand new concepts have appeared on the scene this week, but that is the only thing that links them. What is interesting about them is how they are at almost opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the objects for which they have been coined.

First out of the blocks was the Hyperloop, the name of a putative high-speed link of the future between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Proposed by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the Hyperloop would place passengers in a vehicle which is propelled along a tube at enormous speeds, covering the distance between the two cities in half an hour.

Will this ever happen? At this stage, who can say, meaning that Hyperloop may be a word of much discussion in 2013, but could have absolutely no linguistic future because the thing which it describes may never exist. Of course if it does, Londoners undertaking tube travel may become very jealous of the version of tube travelling happening 8,000 miles away.

The nature of this word is diametrically opposed to Olinguito, which has also been unveiled this week. The Olinguito is a newly identified carnivore living in cloud forests in South America, the first newly named carnivore in 35 years.

So we have something that doesn’t exist with a name, and something which has always existed but has never had a name up to now. Both are great new words of this year. Something man-made versus something natural.

I suspect that the one which has had to wait much longer for recognition will be the one that makes it through to full lexical recognition,

Zero-Hours Contracts On The Rise

I’m not sure exactly how long zero-hours contracts have been around, but their sudden ascent to the front pages suggest this is a phrase that has found its place in history in 2013.

The contracts, which basically offer no guarantee of hours or pay to those employed on them, have been getting wider coverage over the last few months.

However, a new report that suggests that one million people are employed on such contracts has elevated the word to the top of public consciousness, suggesting it may prove to be a political hot potato for all parties over the next few months. It is certainly a term that we are not going to be able to avoid for the forseeable future and is a linguistically neat way of describing a very particular set of circumstances. Or is it too neat, and kind of spirits away the difficulties faced by people on these contracts in a simple phrase. The term potentially masks the reality of the issues.

Either way, expect to see it jostling near the top of words of the year lists at the end of 2013.

Meat By Another Name

The unveiling of the world’s first stem-cell burger has divided opinion between those who think it is the answer to the world’s food problems and those who believe it is the start of a slippery slope to culinary catastrophe. But there is one thing I think we can all agree on – what on earth should we call it?

The creation, cooking and eating of the burger, which cost more than £200,000, has been reported under various names. Let’s be honest though, the official terms such as ‘in-vitro meat’, ‘cultured meat’, they don’t really trip off the tongue. Equally, I’m sure the scientists behind this venture don’t want it entering the vernacular as a Frankenburger, a Test Tube Burger or a Stem Cell Burger, all pejorative terms of varying degrees.

The myriad of epithets is fascinating. Here is a brand new concept, and something which could quite easily become a staple part of our diet and lives in years to come. So what we end up calling it will be quite important.

I suspect that if this does actually take off, a brand new word which we haven’t yet thought of  will emerge. There are all sorts of good reasons why something which references meat may not the word that is ultimately used. It will need to be a word that shows that this is something else, derived from meat but in many ways different. Quorn has succeeded well with this, establishing itself as a food group in its own right away from its fungal ancestry.

Equally, any word suggesting it is some kind of alternative meat is bound to divide opinion, as however it is slated could be grist to one side or another. And ‘meat substitute’ as a name just won’t wash, and will simply bring Basil Fawlty’s infamous veal substitute to mind.

So I think this is a story to watch with interest, because if this is a concept that is truly something for the future, then the linguistic ramifications will be enormous.

London’s New Way To Fly

Ambitious plans have been unveiled for tackling some of London’s most congested roads. But while I applaud the ambition, I am less sure about the new word which these proposals may unleash on an unsuspecting world.

A major part of the plan would see the six-lane flyover at Brent Cross covered over with a new pedestrianised area, with the road disappearing under the ground instead. Then new proposed highway has been dubbed a ‘Flyunder’.

I have often said on the cyber pages of Wordability that new words emerge when there is a linguistic gap which needs filling. But there are already some quite serviceable words to cover such a road. How about underpass. Or tunnel.

Flyunder may tick the box of making the proposal sound sexier and more 21st century, but it is what it is – a great big road under the ground. And we all know that underground, you can’t fly. Sadly, if it had been announced that there were plans to build a Burrowunder, it just wouldn’t have had the same ring.

Truthinews Takes Truthiness Further

I have never heard of American comedian Stephen Colbert. I know nothing of his satirical shows in the US, and I was oblivious of his contribution to the lexicon. So when I read this week that he had coined a new word in one of his on-air satirical pieces, I was not entirely sure whether it would merit further consideration.

But on looking into it, I found that Mr Colbert has previous in this area, and his newest contribution is actually an effort to take his previous triumph and give it a new spin. In 2005, in his first broadcast, he used the word ‘Truthiness’, the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true over concepts or facts known to be true. Other obscure meanings of the word have been recorded, but so successful was this meaning that it quickly became used by many others and the American Dialect Society named it the word of the year.

So when Mr Colbert himself introduced a derivative of truthiness, I had to sit up and take notice. He defined ‘Truthinews’ as the process of news channels telling viewers what they want to hear and then reporting their own opinions back to them as facts, often inspired by surveys.

He said: “Luckily now truthinews is here to usher in a new standard of broadcasting. First, we ask you what you think the news is, then report that news you told us back to you, then take an insta-Twitter poll to see if you feel informed by yourself, which we will read on the air until we reach that golden day  when we are so responsive to our viewers that cable news is nothing but a mirror, a logo and a news crawl.”

We now sit back and see whether this word enjoys the same success as its ancestor:

Liliger Liliger Burning Bright

I must admit that the birth of the world’s first liliger passed me by last year. But fear not. The arrival of three more liligers has propelled this new species, and neologism, across the world’s media.

The liliger litter has been born at Novosibirsk zoo in Russia to a lion father (Sam) and a liger mother (Zita), a liger being a cross-breed between a lion and a tiger.

Whether this word has a long life is of course entirely dependent on the future course of the world’s liliger population. Given that there are only four of them at present, and they are all female, the prospects don’t look great. This may be a word that only covers a single generation of animals and then retreats into history. Or perhaps when older, a liliger will mate with a lion, creating a lililiger.

I dread to think how many syllables we might need for their great-great-grandchildren.

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.