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Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Sext if you must... but be careful not to foozle it
Thursday, August 18th, 2011 10:51 amI am disappointed but hardly surprised to see that despite the fanfare on the departmental intranet, IE8 has still not been rolled out and that I am still sitting here using a PC with IE6, which sits and thinks to itself for minutes at a time and then gives up entirely. Still, tomorrow is my last day for a fortnight, so I am more interested in my forthcoming break than I am in office improvements, though it would have been nice for something to happen as advertised for once, rather than as expected.
New words in the Oxford English Dictionary for 2011 include such entries as ‘sexting’ – the sending of sexually explicit images or messages by mobile phone; ‘jeggings’ – women’s stretch trousers that look like jeans (so, tight jeans, then), ‘mankini’ and ‘retweet’. It is clearly too early to say whether or not any of these words will stay permanently in the mainstream; ‘retweet’ will surely last only as long as Twitter is popular, and regular applications of mind bleach should erase ‘mankini’ in time.
I am more interested in looking back a hundred years and mourning the fact that such splendid words as ‘growlery’ – a place to growl in – and ‘foozle’, meaning to do something clumsily, have both hit the scrapheap of linguistic history. Other words that made the OED for the first time in 1911 included cancan, defined as indecent dance, biplane and rag-time. There was also some fretting over the word, ‘frock’ in the sense of a monk’s gown.
I was surprised to see the word beverage only made the OED in 1911, as did petticoat and jet (as in a stream of water). Football showed up as ‘socker’ and whatever became of ‘brabble’, a paltry, noisy quarrel?
New words in the Oxford English Dictionary for 2011 include such entries as ‘sexting’ – the sending of sexually explicit images or messages by mobile phone; ‘jeggings’ – women’s stretch trousers that look like jeans (so, tight jeans, then), ‘mankini’ and ‘retweet’. It is clearly too early to say whether or not any of these words will stay permanently in the mainstream; ‘retweet’ will surely last only as long as Twitter is popular, and regular applications of mind bleach should erase ‘mankini’ in time.
I am more interested in looking back a hundred years and mourning the fact that such splendid words as ‘growlery’ – a place to growl in – and ‘foozle’, meaning to do something clumsily, have both hit the scrapheap of linguistic history. Other words that made the OED for the first time in 1911 included cancan, defined as indecent dance, biplane and rag-time. There was also some fretting over the word, ‘frock’ in the sense of a monk’s gown.
I was surprised to see the word beverage only made the OED in 1911, as did petticoat and jet (as in a stream of water). Football showed up as ‘socker’ and whatever became of ‘brabble’, a paltry, noisy quarrel?
I should always remember the wisdom in the adage "beware of what you wish for".
I have been quietly narked by the lack of family visits since I moved to London in 1984. Now they are coming for a visit and although they don't arrive until Tuesday next week, I'm already stressed and feel like being exceptionally rude to my sister.
*calm, calm, calm*
That is all.
I have been quietly narked by the lack of family visits since I moved to London in 1984. Now they are coming for a visit and although they don't arrive until Tuesday next week, I'm already stressed and feel like being exceptionally rude to my sister.
*calm, calm, calm*
That is all.