Weekly Word Watch: the staying power of ‘creepshot’ and ‘overtourism’
This week, our word radar pinged a number of newer words notable not for their outright novelty, but because they appear to be showing some staying power. Nonce words and neologisms are always interesting, but it’s also exciting to observe words when they begin take hold in the language through meaningful use and widespread contexts. […]
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Weekly Word Watch: jerk rice, okole, and snitch line
On our latest Weekly Word Watch, some newsworthy and notable nouns teach us a little Quechuan, Hawaiian, Ancient Greek, and that most exotic of languages: Canadian English. Jerk rice This week, British MP Dawn Butler accused British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver of cultural appropriation for a new product called Punchy Jerk Rice. #jamieoliver @jamieoliver #jerk […]
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I’s got new language rules, I count ’em
It’s one of the very first things I remember learning in primary school: i before e except after c. Now, we could be able to put that rule to rest. Recent research by a University of Warwick statistician, Nathan Cunningham, has found that i before e except after c is largely a fallacy – ‘cie’ […]
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Weekly Word Watch: identity condiments, woke-washing, and final solution
Today’s post marks our 52nd Weekly Word Watch. That’s an entire year of new and noteworthy, unusual and unlikely, and zeitgeisty and buzzy terms — nearly 240 of them, in fact. My personal favourite, for what it’s worth, is päntsdrunk, a Finnish-inflected word for the Scandinavian lifestyle trend of ‘drinking at home, alone, in your […]
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Why do we hate certain words?
‘Language is wine upon the lips,’ remarked Virginia Woolf, and for Woolf’s own elaborate, luminous prose, the phrase seems to hold true. Yet it is also true that some words hardly leave us feeling contented or luxuriated, as a glass of fine wine might. Moist, for example, consistently tops ‘most hated words’ lists. ‘Least favorite […]
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Weekly Word Watch: Snapchat dysmorphia, hothouse, and firenado
Brace yourselves. The theme for this week’s Word Watch is health and the environment, and things get a bit hot and heavy. You may want to have some cute animals photos to hand, but we can’t stop words from dishing up cold, hard facts. Snapchat dysmorphia As digital technology continues to change our lives, it […]
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‘The general quack of conversation’: a buoyant, bogus, underappreciated word
Some words get all the attention. Presidential coinages such as covfefe and misunderestimate become fodder for an endless succession of jokes. Words for annoying behaviors such as mansplaining and humblebragging become talking points in the eternal quest to annihilate our annoyances. Beautiful words get lots of love (hello, serendipity) and corporate buzzwords get heaps of […]
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Weekly Word Watch: Bigfoot erotica, cuckooing, and sharknapping
Word-wise, it was a real zoo this week. No, we mean it: the news uncaged some veritable verbal beasts, from manly-man monsters and cuckoo crimes to swaddled sharks and dog days. Let’s see if we can’t tame some of these wild words here. Bigfoot erotica Sometimes on the Weekly Word Watch, we’re struck by terms […]
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