juste a mot
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A fortnightly update on new words, compiled in association with Chambers Dictionaries.
All you out there in logofandom, what's with the language? None of the weep-worthy dictionaried words of the usual Dwems, this is the chicest in-yer-face guide to the verbal Euromulch fighting its way into the next editions.
So here's another view from the untime-limited churning textscape of the incessantly inventive Euro-hacks. The loose change of language, to lose in deep pockets of vocabulary, to fritter away or to video conference with friends.
Glossary
chicest: Most chic, a well-formed superlative, but very ugly. Spotted in the Boots Magazine of Spring 1995.
dictionaried: Probably not a word, but in keeping with the American tendency to change nouns into verbs. See video conference.
Dwem: Dead white European male.
Euromulch: One of a Euroglut of Euro-words spawned by the EC, including Eurobarometer, Euro-chic (but not yet Euro-chicest), Eurodomino (a rail ticket), Euro-hack, Eurosceptic, Eurosclerosis, Eurospeak, Eurosquawk and many others.
in-yer-face: Vulgarly forthright, imported from the US around 1992, sometimes seen as "in-your-face", and included in the dictionary under preparation in a refined form: "in-one's-face".
logofandom: "Fandom" is on course for the next edition of Chambers. Can "logofandom" - the community of word-groupies, be far behind?
loose change: Once only money, the wider applications of "loose change" are being closely monitored, including a recent spotting of "the loose change of protest" describing those who complain about TV adverts.
textscape: Another of the recent generalisations of landscape.
untime-limited: "I want this to go forward in an untime-limited way" (Sir Patrick Mayhew, 26.2.95). Ugly.
video-conference: Noun used as verb, first spotted in a press release launching the British Council's English 2000 Project.
weep-worthy: "Only in Paris do people really weep at fashion shows and, as fashion shows go, this one was pretty weep-worthy." (Tatler, April 1995)
what's with: What is the matter with. The sort of ghastly Americanism - rather like "to video-conference" - that Prince Charles loudly deplored when launching the British Council's English 2000 Project.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments