One of the nice things about the Oxford English Dictionary homepage on the web is that they list expressions that have been ‘recently added’ to the great dictionary. Let me take you through some of the most recent additions:
Burger—an abbreviation, of course, of the food name ‘hamburger.’ Surely, this has been around for a long time? Well, yes, it has. But now it has an additional meaning. ‘Burger’ is now also used to mean ‘A person from Ghana who has migrated to, and often returned from, another country, esp. Germany or elsewhere in Europe.’ But since you and I don’t speak Ghanaian English it’s unlikely we’ll ever need this (however, the Oxford does strive to be an exhaustively comprehensive record of language). Of course, it is a bit weird that anyone (anywhere) is named after a food item, but there you are.
Bushwalk—yes, our long-standing word seems to have only recently been recorded by the massive full Oxford. (Surely they can’t take that long to catch up?)
Brandscape—clearly a play on the familiar ‘landscape.’ The Oxford says the ‘brandscape’ means: ‘The selection of brands available to consumers in a particular market, considered collectively; the commercial environment in which companies or brands are marketed to consumers.’ This is a too-cute-by-half new coinage that we probably never needed!
Morto—this is a (slightly weird) abbreviation of ‘mortified’ and means someone who is extremely embarrassed. Another bit of ‘yoof slang’ I assume!
Timeboxing—this, says the Oxford, means: ‘The action or practice of assigning fixed periods of time to a person or team, during which they must work to achieve specific goals.’ The Oxford adds this additional explanatory note: ‘Typically used as a project management strategy for increasing efficiency, with the duration of the periods calculated to ensure the likelihood of success, and with evaluations afterwards to assess what was achieved or not achieved.’ It is with a sense of relief that I can say I have never been ‘timeboxed.’ Does that mean I’ve had very good bosses?
Lickety-brindle—meaning ‘Very quickly; at full speed’ says the Oxford. This looks suspiciously like the more familiar ‘lickety-split’ (which, at least, has the benefit of looking and sounding like something fast). So, where does the ‘brindle’ bit come from? The Oxford unhelpfully says: ‘The semantic motivation for the second element is unclear.’
So, there you are—a bunch of ‘recently added’ verbal bits and pieces in the Oxford English Dictionary. (They are clearly having a lot of fun up there at Oxford!)
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin on Sky News for 'Word Matters.
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The March-April issue of Australian Geographic is out now (with the curlew on the cover) -- inside are my two small columns on 'Placenames' and 'Ozwords'.
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
I have just taken part in Jenny Wheeler's podcast "The Joys of Binge Reading." You can listen to the conversation here:
https://thejoysofbingereading.com/kel-richards-country-house-mysteries/
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