Friday 30 November 2012

Word of the year by Oxford English Dictionary

Each year a group of lexicographers chooses the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year and this year's winner is...







Omnishambles is a neologism first used in the BBC political satire The Thick of It. The word is compounded from the Latin prefix omni-, meaning "all", and the word shambles, meaning a situation of total disorder. The word refers to a situation which is seen as shambolic from all possible perspectives. ( the definition taken from wiki )


However, it wasn't a one - horse race and there were a lot of candidates on the shortlist:

mummy porn,  noun, informal, chiefly derogatory
·                                 erotic fiction of a type written for or read by women

Games Maker,  noun
·                                 a volunteer responsible for helping the public at an Olympic venue during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games [a proprietary term for various goods and services]

medal,  verb
·                                 to win a medal in a sporting event or competition by finishing first, second, or third

Eurogeddon,  noun, informal
·                                 the potential financial collapse of the European Union countries that have adopted the euro, envisaged as having catastrophic implications for the region’s economic stability.
·                                 [from EURO and (ARMA)GEDDON]

green-on-blue, phrase
·                                 Military denoting or relating to an attack made on one’s own side by forces regarded as neutral : the shooting was the latest in a string of  green-on-blue attacks.
·                                 [from the use of green to indicate neutral forces and blue to indicate friendly forces in military exercises]

pleb,  noun, derogatory
·                                 an ordinary person, especially one regarded as being of low social status.
·                                 [from Latin plebs ‘the common people’]

second screening,  noun
·                                 the practice or activity of watching television while simultaneously using a smartphone, tablet computer, laptop, or other screen device, typically in order to read about the programme being watched or post about it on a social media site

Mobot,  noun
·                                 a characteristic gesture as performed by the British long-distance runner Mo Farah on winning the 5,000 and 10,000 metres events at the 2012 Olympics, in which both arms are arched above the head with the hands pointing down to the top of the head to form a distinctive ’M’ shape
·                                 [blend of Mo (diminutive of ‘Mohamed’) and ROBOT]

YOLO,  acronym, informal
·                                 ‘you only live once’, typically used as a rationale or endorsement for impulsive or irresponsible behaviour


 My favourites are: mymmy porn, Eurogeddon and YOLO :) and what about yours???

Here you'll find a link on omnishambles from 6 Minutes English.

And thank you Tom for this post inspiration :)


source: google images.