It doesn’t take being an “intelligence specialist” to figure out that people – Shakespeare wannabes – craft new words all the time.
Sometimes these words come from the “chattering classes” or the Oval Office, but in many cases, new words – or just new meanings – erupt in the “blog osphere” before they filter down to the “duppies” and the rest of the world.
Humans like to be creative, mashing words together or adding unlikely prefixes and suffixes. Sometimes the word is old but the meaning reconstituted. Such terms often describe a change in lifestyle, a fad or, in some cases, a manufactured substitute for reality.
It takes an attentive ear to discern the new and nuanced, but it helps that people and organizations track newcomers.
The New Oxford American Dictionary, for instance, introduced more than 2,000 words onto its pages in 2005, and the website wordspy.com offers daily entries for those who want to remain in the know.
“Coining a word is a cool thing, and there are a lot more of them now because more people have the power to disseminate them,” says Erin McKean, editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary. “We’re especially finding new words on blogs because they aren’t professionally edited.”
McKean and her staff are more sensitized to developing words, although finding exactly when a word was born is statistically impossible – like getting hit by lightning five times.
And inventing new words isn’t that easy: If you’ve thought of it, so has someone else.
“One of my staffers thought he invented “santagnostic” (we’ll never know whether the man is real), but we Googled the word and other people had used it,” says McKean. “Like curry toothpaste, if other people haven’t thought of it, it probably isn’t very good.”
Not every made-up word is destined for the dictionary. “What we’re looking for is something that’s useful. Your dictionary is a tool box. We don’t want minuscule, left-handed monkey wrenches in there. Words have to be good descriptors of the world.”
Words also need to be important and interesting and even fun, otherwise they fall prey to Darwinian devices.
The word “swancho,” for instance, didn’t make the cut for this year’s dictionary, and it may fall away as ponchos once again become Goodwill donations. A swancho is a combination sweater and poncho. “There’s no way to tell if this word has staying power, but we didn’t think it was useful,” says McKean.
That doesn’t mean “swancho” isn’t a real word. “Being in the dictionary is not a badge of honor. People aren’t limited to words I’ve managed to capture and pin down. A dog doesn’t have to be registered with the American Kennel Association to be a dog. It still fetches your slippers; it just isn’t pedigreed.”
Many “new” words are those that techies have used for years but are elevated as more people become computer savvy. “Rootkit” is one of those terms. It’s software installed on a computer by someone other than the owner, intended to conceal other programs or data. The word entered the common lexicon this year when some Sony CDs were installing rootkits on unsuspecting consumers’ PCs.
Other words, with a nod to author George Orwell’s “double speak,” come from government sources.
“These are words that use distortion and understatement to evade the truth,” says Paul Wasserman, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies. He and Don Hausrath, a colleague at UM, wrote
“Weasel Words: The Dictionary of American Double speak.”
“We decided to capture some of this doubletalk that goes on everywhere to show the character of so much of the obfuscation of our time.”
One of the most disturbing recent words, says Wasserman, is “extraordinary rendition,” which the authors define as “The Bush II Administration’s name for outsourcing of torture by using U.S. agents to take alleged terrorists to countries outside the footprint of U.S. legislation.”
Using slogans and broad abstractions to cloak reality isn’t a recent government ploy, but Wasserman says it happens more frequently now.
“Part of the problem is that it has become so commonplace and (the population) has become immune to it. We take the terms that have no meaning or very little meaning and accept them instead of asking for the truth.”
Staff writer Cynthia J. Pasquale can be reached at 303-820-1722 or cpasquale@denverpost.com.
Say what?
Look back at 2005 with some of these new, reinvented or mainstreamed words, taken from news reports, wordspy.com, the book “Weasel Words” and the New Oxford American Dictionary:
Blirting: Using a Blackberry to send flirtatious messages. People who can’t put their Blackberry away call the device “crackberry,” referring to crack and its addictive nature.
Blogosphere: Blogs as a community or social network.
Buckle bunny: A female groupie who follows the Marlboro men of the rodeo circuit.
Chattering classes: Coined in Britain to connote the talking style and the content of those from loftier social and economic levels, the word more recently includes members of the media, particularly columnists, talk-show hosts and pundits.
Clowning: a spasmodic style of dance that incorporates moves from pole-dancing strippers. The movie “Rize” introduced the dance to the uninitiated.
Cross lightings: Once called “cross burnings,” these acts of racial hatred and associated with Ku Klux Klan meetings have recently been termed “important religious ceremonies” by those who continue the practice.
CSI effect: The unrealistically high expectations some jurors have for the prosecution’s case in a criminal court proceeding, particularly when those expectations are created by exposure to forensic- oriented TV shows such as “Crime Scene Investigation.” Also: CSI factor, CSI syndrome.
Duppies: Young, formerly high fliers who have to subsist on unemployment insurance or low-pay jobs go by this moniker, which is short for depressed urban professionals.
Fake bake: Sunless tanning.
Fauxhemian: Those people who adopt aspects of the appearance and trappings of the Bohemian lifestyle without actually straying too far from the straight and narrow of social conventions.
Fresh to death: Clothing termed thusly in the hip hop fashion world is so hot that it will stay cool to wear until the owner is long dead.
Hiyunka: A word describing hefty handbags, chunky shoes and jawbreaker-sized beads.
ICE: An emergency phone number programmed in a mobile phone’s address book under the name ICE (in case of emergency).
IDP: Internally displaced person: someone forced to relocate within a country because of a natural disaster. This acronym was formed because of the controversy over whether to refer to those forced to leave New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina as “evacuees” or “refugees.”
Improper source dependence: A softer version of the harsher word for the same action – plagiarism.
Indie-yuppie: Young urban professionals who shop in the trendiest stores, and devour the hottest, cutting-edge music and film. Indie refers to independently made movies or music, not backed by big money or companies.
Intelligence specialist: A person hired to gather and assess information about another country or industry.
Jump the couch: To exhibit frenzied or aberrant behavior that makes it appear as if one is completely out of control or even insane. (Think Tom Cruise expressing his love for Katie Holmes on the Oprah Winfrey show.)
Kipper: Adult children reluctant to fly from the nest or Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings.
Krumping: A mixture of traditional African tribal dances, street fighting and the physical evocation of spiritual ecstasy.
Lifehack: A more efficient or effective way of completing an everyday task.
Meanderthal: A person who walks particularly slowly and aimlessly, often toting cellphones and delaying pedestrian or motor traffic.
Ownership society: President Bush uses the term to mean a reduction or elimination of taxes on savings and investments. The owners of these would be untaxed on their resources, thereby giving them more control to invest as they see fit.
Playlistism: Judging a person based on what songs are on the playlist of his or her digital music player.
Podcast: A digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player. Also: Godcast, a podcast with a religious theme; vodcasting, Podcasting videos.
Spamalanche: An avalanche of junk e-mails.
Vlogs: Video logs on the Internet that broadcast events or a person’s views on subjects.
– Cynthia J. Pasquale
