2016 will for long be remembered for the English neologisms coined in the spheres of business and politics. Some have already become hackneyed and will die a slow death over the next few years. Others will persist. English speakers already have a choice of one million words at their disposal and it seems that this lexicon is increasing at the rate of 1,000 new words every year.
Let us have a look at some of the more amusing words added to the English lexicon over the past year or so. I will avoid the now common words like Brexit, even if most people in the UK and the rest of Europe still do not know what it will really mean for Britain to leave the EU. I will also ignore nouns that are prefixed with the now popular ‘post’ like post-truth and post-trust. I am sure you have heard enough about these clichés.
Donald Trump will undoubtedly be remembered – if not for his political policies, for the new words he coined.
The Open Dictionary on Merriam-Webster’s website regularly publishes new words it identifies in the written and spoken language. This year they had a feast with the new words coined or given a new meaning by Trump. Apparently the word that captured the imagination of most linguists was ‘disavow’. Trump used it to denounce the endorsement of a former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke in the presidential campaign.
Donald Trump will undoubtedly be remembered – if not for his political policies, for the new words he coined
The Cambridge Dictionary introduced the word ‘bobu’ – “a businessman who leads a bohemian lifestyle”. I would have sworn that this word was derived from dialectal Maltese spoken in one of our villages. But one of my favourite new words is a recent addition to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. ‘Belignorant’ refers to a person who “enjoys being belligerent and ignorant”. I am sure you agree that there are quite a few of these people around but do not ask me to give examples lest I get hit by some hard object hurled by some belignorant.
Marketing people coined a new buzzword: Gen Z. Younger than millennials, the next generation is “more reliant on digital than its predecessors, forcing brands to get more creative in their marketing”. My guess is that this word will be overused by our political communications gurus as elections approach.
At the other end of the demographic spectrum are the ‘silent generation’: the generation born between the mid-1920s to the early 1940s who are so badly overlooked by our society, obsessed with appealing to the younger generations.
Another curious addition that marketers and political pundits like is the word ‘midult’ – “someone, especially a woman, in the middle stage of adulthood who has interests more associated with those of younger people”. I am really curious to know what our politicians will be promising to this demographic group to capture their vote.
‘Qualitatious’ is another amusing word that we are bound to see being used in adverts. It simply means “of good quality” which sounds rather dull. A word which is bound to persist in our language is ‘unshop’ which means “to return unpurchased merchandise to the shelf while shopping”.
I also follow closely the evolution of the Italian language which is possibly more mellifluous than English. The 2016 edition of the famous Dizionario Zingarelli introduced some new words that I really like. According to the Zingarelli linguistic researchers, the Italian language is adding 500 neologisms every year while hundreds of older words are being discarded.
Italian linguists are generally very conservative and resent the introduction of American English words that most people hear as a result of the spread of US culture through TV. ‘Bartender’, for instance, has now been accepted by Zingarelli as an Italianised word. The Italian dictionary gives a new slant to the meaning of this word which does not simply refer to the person who prepares cocktails in bars, but to one who makes a show out of preparing such drinks.
My favourite new Italian word, however, is ‘poltronismo’. It refers to politicians who are obsessed with the idea of occupying posts or assuming positions of authority in public life. ‘Supercazzola’ is another amusing addition to the Italian lexicon. It refers to “a meaningless word or phrase solemnly used by speakers to impress or confuse whoever is listening to them”. Politicians are experts at using such meaningless words.
This time next year we will see how many of these words are still in use.
johncassarwhite@yahoo.com