This is my final column of 2014. Discussing the origin and meanings of new words of a particular year in the final column of the year has been the practice for the past few years. Many new words were added to various international dictionaries in 2014. As I discussed in my November 29 column, the word ‘vape’ emerged as the Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year 2014.
English is the richest language with over a million words and phrases, and every year many new words become members of the English language family. According to a 2009 Global Language Monitor report, the English language generates 14.7 words a day or one word every 98 minutes. Here is an extract from one of my columns written in 2009: “The Global Language Monitor on June 10, 2009 announced that Web 2.0 has bested Jai Ho, Noob and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word or phrase added to the codex of the 1,400-year-old language.” There were fifteen finalists for the one millionth English word” and finally Web 2.0 became the millionth word and the words of Indian origin Jai Ho! and the related slumdog became the 999,999th word and the 999,997th word respectively.
There have been many entries in 2014. One word on the rise in 2014 was binge-watch. According to Oxford’s language monitoring programme, the use of the word ‘binge-watch’ increased fourfold in February 2014 and tripled in June 2014, based on its average use over the last two years. The verb binge-watch means “to watch multiple episodes of a television programme in succession typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming”. It is a marathon watching of many episodes of a TV serial or programme.
My son downloaded Beyblade Metal Fusion episodes he didn’t get to watch during exams and binge-watched them later.
“Granny, don’t worry. Even if you miss a few episodes, you can access them on the Internet and binge-watch them later.”
‘Hate-watch’ is one of my favourite words, as I use it frequently. It means ‘to watch a TV programme or a movie or anything you hate’.
Sometimes, we enjoy watching some movies or videos we are not supposed to watch. We do it just for pleasure and we feel guilty after doing it. It is called ‘pleasure watch’. ‘Hate-watch’ is the opposite of ‘pleasure-watch’.
Some political analysts hate-watch Modi’s programmes and criticise him in their columns.
Three of my other favourite words are:
Bro- hug: friendly hug between two men (It is an informal American English expression).
Fandom: the fans of a particular person regarded collectively as a community.
Time-poor: spending much of one’s time working/occupied.
New abbreviations also make their dictionary debut in the Oxford Dictionaries:
SMH – Shake my head
WDYT – What do you think
ICYMI – In case you missed it
Wish you, dear readers, a very Happy New Year!
Rayanal@yahoo.co.uk