by
hugovk
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aggressive troll, n.
Five types of troll were found: the “blame the US conspiracy trolls”; the “bikini trolls” (adorned with images of young women who would gently ask targets to rethink their views); “aggressive trolls” determined to drive people off the web; “Wikipedia trolls” working to edit blogs and web pages to Russia’s advantage; and “attachment trolls”, who would post link after link to articles and videos from Russian news platforms.
alternative investment, n.
“Alternative investment” classes –in fine wine, whisky and art – have enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years as wealthy investors looked for a place to park cash away from financial markets after the credit crunch shredded their share portfolios. But can trainer trading really be a path to riches for people with a nose for street fashion?
altitude native, n.
“They have not mentioned that in the letter,” said the spokesman. “It is kept broad – they don’t identify specific readings. It’s about establishing a pattern. When we put him back into competition we were happy that his biological passport can be explained by his status as an altitude native. That status won’t have changed.”...
“The physiology of ‘altitude natives’ is a complex area,” said Brailsford in a statement released via the Team Sky website. “The science is limited and in recent years we have proactively sought to understand it better by undertaking detailed scientific research. We recognise why the CADF have raised this issue as it is one we have obviously raised ourselves.”
analogue handset, n. a retronym for a non-smart digital phone, a dumbphone, a feature phone
The Independent, 12 January 2016:
The actor Eddie Redmayne ditched his smartphone in favour of an analogue handset to help him live “in the moment”, he has revealed.
The Guardian, 17 January 2016:
In an instant, I processed my shock into potential content provision, opining internally that Eddie Redmayne’s analogue handset represented, to me, almost the last link to a better time: a time before the stress of instant communication, the death of casual contemplation and the inevitable dumbing-down caused by an oceanic volume of immediate information: train times, species of woodlouse, the original line-up of BMX Bandits.
analogue phone, n. a retronym for a non-smart digital phone, a dumbphone, a feature phone
The Indepenent, 12 January 2016:
For a while. Redmayne says his experiment worked. “I love the idea of a more analogue phone in theory,” said the actor. “During the day, I felt far more alive.”
artbot, n.
But even though Facebook might want to sell itself as the pioneer of chatbots, the real leaders in the field aren’t working in the AI research teams of silicon valley; they’re collaborating at events like last week’s BotSummit in the V&A, or this weekend’s Art of Bots exhibition in Somerset House. Move over chatbots: it’s time to meet the artbots.
athleisure, n.
This looks like sportswear, but sportswear that you would also wear to a gig. It’s not really on the catwalk – at least not overarchingly so – and while sportswear and athleisure have always included tight-fitting pieces for various ergonomic and aesthetic reasons, none of it has really been “in fashion”. Athleisure, the closest fashion has come to accepting sportswear, tends to be loose-fitting, minimal and sometimes comes in cashmere. It’s also lucrative – athleisure is worth £6.4bn and looks set to increase over the next three years. Ivy Park is, arguably, more than sportswear. It’s a sideways take on bodycon – or bodycon 3.0 as we’re calling it, given that it’s not new – sitting somewhere between sportswear and fashion-tight. And, like bodycon, it’s sexy as hell, even if retailers aren’t selling it as such.
attachment troll, n.
Five types of troll were found: the “blame the US conspiracy trolls”; the “bikini trolls” (adorned with images of young women who would gently ask targets to rethink their views); “aggressive trolls” determined to drive people off the web; “Wikipedia trolls” working to edit blogs and web pages to Russia’s advantage; and “attachment trolls”, who would post link after link to articles and videos from Russian news platforms.
austerity ailments, n.
The Guardian, 14 February 2016:
That conclusion was also used in evidence by the pressure group Psychologists Against Austerity, represented by Laura McGrath of the University of East London and Vanessa Griffin of the University of Essex. They had formed their group to protest at what they saw as the advance of five stress-related “austerity ailments”: humiliation and shame, instability and insecurity, isolation and loneliness, being trapped or feeling powerless, and fear and distrust. The collective result of these ailments was that “Mental health problems are being created in the present, and further problems are being stored for the future.”
autonomous spaceport drone ship, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2015:
The intention was to land the nearly empty first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on the ship (labelled, in suitably grand terms, the “autonomous spaceport drone ship” by the company). Typically, the first stage of rockets are single-use, splashing down into the ocean after they’ve burned out and experiencing damaging atmospheric burn on the way down. The Falcon 9 was instead intended to control its descent with left-over fuel and hydraulically operated fins – and it nearly did.
battlespace, n.
“The scramble went exactly as planned, we launched our Typhoon aircraft quickly and then using our advanced sensors and mission systems, combined with support from our battlespace managers on the ground, carried out textbook intercepts of the three aircraft.”
BDFL, n. Benevolent Dictator For Life
Brett Cannon, 02 January 2016:
And at least for me, the fact Guido prefers GitHub means something. While Guido himself would say I shouldn't really worry about his preferences since he is only an occasional contributor at this point, I believe that it's important that our BDFL actually like contributing to his own programming language rather than potentially alienating him because he finds the process burdensome.
Best Rapper Alive, n.
But there is one debate that every rap fan not only loves to have but ought to have. A debate that considers both the short-term and long-term implications of an artist’s impact. A debate that pits a rapper in their prime against any and all competitors. A debate that gawks at the cultural landscape and plucks out the one who stands alone: the debate about who is the Best Rapper Alive. Being the BRA is sort of like being the MVP—even though rap doesn’t follow a rigid cultural calendar quite like major sports seasons—because it only requires looking at the current crop of active artists and picking a winner. You can confidently declare the Best Rapper Alive in any given year without having to consider previous decades, the same way you can say LeBron is an MVP even though you’ve never seen Jerry West play.
bikelash, n.
The Bike Show, 20 November 2016:
After the big victories for London cycle campaigners and the construction of two new fully segregated bike lanes in the centre of the city, the bikelash has begun. Lead by newspapers like the Daily Mail as well as a raft of celebrity commentators, taxi drivers and disgruntled business owners, the reaction to progress in cycle infrastructure has been vociferous. What is bikelash, why is it happening and what can we do about it? Joining Jack Thurston are the London Cycling Campaign’s ‘campaigner of the year’ Clare Rogers of the Enfield Cycling Campaign and Robert Wright of the Financial Times.
bikini troll, n.
Five types of troll were found: the “blame the US conspiracy trolls”; the “bikini trolls” (adorned with images of young women who would gently ask targets to rethink their views); “aggressive trolls” determined to drive people off the web; “Wikipedia trolls” working to edit blogs and web pages to Russia’s advantage; and “attachment trolls”, who would post link after link to articles and videos from Russian news platforms.
Bin Laden, n.
The Guardian, 04 May 2016:
The European Central Bank has phased out the €500 (£400) note, nicknamed the “Bin Laden” because of its association with money-laundering and terror financing – and because while many people know what it looks like, few have ever seen one.
bioinspiration, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
But the same biomimetic approach means a drone could be mistaken for a bird, even by other birds: US military Raven drones were reportedly knocked out of the sky by hawks. In any case, rather than biomimicry, Rafael Palacios of Imperial College’s department of aeronautics and one of the researchers behind the new bat-winged MAV, prefers the word bioinspiration.
biomimetics, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
The new science of biomimetics has already produced a range of materials and technologies imitated from nature. This is a fruitful approach for flight, said David Hambling, author of a new book, Swarm Troopers: How Small Drones will Conquer the World.
biomimicry, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
But the same biomimetic approach means a drone could be mistaken for a bird, even by other birds: US military Raven drones were reportedly knocked out of the sky by hawks. In any case, rather than biomimicry, Rafael Palacios of Imperial College’s department of aeronautics and one of the researchers behind the new bat-winged MAV, prefers the word bioinspiration.
blaccent, n.
There’s something that’s linguistically interesting about it. Most Americans know you can usually hear that a person is black even if you can’t see them and even if they’re not using any slang. I sometimes call it the “blaccent.” The blaccent is mostly about the coloring of a few vowels – the “a” in cat and the “o” in hot. It happens that these two vowels are the two in “black bodies.”
blame the US conspiracy troll, n.
Five types of troll were found: the “blame the US conspiracy trolls”; the “bikini trolls” (adorned with images of young women who would gently ask targets to rethink their views); “aggressive trolls” determined to drive people off the web; “Wikipedia trolls” working to edit blogs and web pages to Russia’s advantage; and “attachment trolls”, who would post link after link to articles and videos from Russian news platforms.
bleeping attention-sponge, n. a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
I’m not asking for jolly chats over the counter. I don’t feel too jolly in most shops, so shudder to think how the poor staff feel. Just some eye contact, pleases and thank yous would restore my faith in human nature. I’m aware I sound like Prince Charles/the Dowager Countess/my own nan but just fear we’re beginning to prioritise Mr I Phone (his first name’s probably Ian) over our fellow citizens. Couples go out for dinner and spend the entire time with their heads bent in silent supplication to the glowing god. People – of all ages, agreed – choose the bleeping attention-sponge over the friends sitting next to them.
bodycon, n.
Short for “body conscious”, in layman’s terms bodycon is clothing – usually a dress – defined by its tightness. Historically, it’s one of the few trends that has leapt between catwalk and mass market. There’s version one: Jean Paul Gaultier’s outer-corsets; Hervé Léger’s bandage-style bodycon dresses which were, ostensibly, couture spanx; and “king of cling” Azzedine Alaïa’s creations, which dominated the tight market in the 90s. Version two, a slightly more formal take, was more about structure and tailoring than cling (see Roland Mouret’s galaxy dress and Victoria Beckham’s first collections). It was bodycon taken down a notch, but bodycon all the same.
bodywear, n.
This is the thinking behind Selfridges brand-new Body Studio, a cavernous series of rooms dedicated to undergarments (swimwear, lingerie, hosiery) designed to be shopped by women. The designers, too, half of which aren’t household names, are predominantly women: The Upside, Michi, Lisa Marie Fernandez, Varley, Monreal are all designed by women and based on what they want to wear. Butchart says: “This underwear, sleepwear and bodywear is intended to be seen. We’re seeing a shift away – to a small extent – from dictatorial beauty standards that the bodycon ‘gym body’ of the past seemed to represent.”
bootloop, v.
Can confirm that Jan 1, 1970 bootloops the device. iTunes will not recognize it in this state. Restoring in DFU (can't update in DFU, that option is unavailable) completes, but goes right back to bootloop. Updating in recovery mode has the same net effect.
botifesto, n.
The people behind these artsy bots are a friendly, loosely-organized community of programmers, artists, journalists, and anyone else who feels like making bots. They’ve got hashtags, most prominently #botALLY; a roving Bot Summit which will take place in London this year; and a “botifesto” on Motherboard that describes the present and future state of bots.
botsmith, n.
Like other botsmiths I spoke to, thrice is ultimately pragmatic, and has no plans for “an estate that funds a server running into eternity where only the bot has the keys to the Twitter account.”
bottomless brunch, n.
When brunch first arrived in Britain, it was a novelty just to be able to order a fry-up after 10am – but it was never going to be long before we wanted in on the mimosa action we saw Carrie, Samantha et al enjoying on the small screen. “Bottomless brunches”, including all the booze you can drink, have long been de rigueur in the US, where waffles and a couple of cocktails have become a Mother’s Day tradition. But in the UK, where “a couple” is not a recognised serving of alcohol, we’ve not only embraced the idea, but made it our own.
BRA, n.
But there is one debate that every rap fan not only loves to have but ought to have. A debate that considers both the short-term and long-term implications of an artist’s impact. A debate that pits a rapper in their prime against any and all competitors. A debate that gawks at the cultural landscape and plucks out the one who stands alone: the debate about who is the Best Rapper Alive. Being the BRA is sort of like being the MVP—even though rap doesn’t follow a rigid cultural calendar quite like major sports seasons—because it only requires looking at the current crop of active artists and picking a winner. You can confidently declare the Best Rapper Alive in any given year without having to consider previous decades, the same way you can say LeBron is an MVP even though you’ve never seen Jerry West play.
bralet, n.
If you think this feels at odds with new, gym-friendly bodycon – not to mention Asos bodysuits and Calvin Klein bralets (a bestseller at Selfridges) – then you’re right. This version is as tight as its forebears but is more focused on fitness and leisure, made with technical fabrics and with mesh detailing, for example. Is it merely a case of bodycon – sexy, tight and unforgiving – being skewed and rebranded back to us as something else entirely?
Bremain, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
Brexit is riskier than Bremain. This is incontestable. We know what it’s like being a member of the EU. We don’t know what it would be like outside.
Brexiteer, n.
Yet there is another undignified pattern of behaviour among the prominent Leavers. They present those who oppose them as bullies and themselves as victims. On Friday, Duncan Smith complained of “spin, smears and threats”. His fellow cabinet Brexiteer, Priti Patel, accused Sir Jeremy Heywood of “unconstitutional” behaviour, after he ruled on the forms of material concerning the referendum that will have to be withheld from cabinet ministers who want Britain to leave. Instead of thanking the PM for suspending collective responsibility over the referendum – so that she can in effect call her boss useless, a failure in the greatest challenge of his political career, and still keep her job – Patel says that his most senior official is stitching the whole thing up.
brocialism, n.
Marcus H. Johnson, 15 June 2016:
Bernie Sanders didn’t win, but he did reveal that we have much work to do with racism and sexism on the left. In previous cycles, Democrats might have assumed that most racists and misogynists resided on the right side of the political spectrum. Sadly, this simply isn’t the case. Sanders’ candidacy revealed a brocialist movement, which became notorious for attacking women and minorities who even mildly criticized Sanders online. Brocialism can be defined quite simply: self-proclaimed socialists who put class issues over race and gender issues. Brocialists believe that fighting for diversity in government and business is simply a distraction to the class struggle.
brocialist, n.
Marcus H. Johnson, 15 June 2016:
Bernie Sanders didn’t win, but he did reveal that we have much work to do with racism and sexism on the left. In previous cycles, Democrats might have assumed that most racists and misogynists resided on the right side of the political spectrum. Sadly, this simply isn’t the case. Sanders’ candidacy revealed a brocialist movement, which became notorious for attacking women and minorities who even mildly criticized Sanders online. Brocialism can be defined quite simply: self-proclaimed socialists who put class issues over race and gender issues. Brocialists believe that fighting for diversity in government and business is simply a distraction to the class struggle.
cabinet of billionaires, n.
The Guardian, 18 December 2016:
Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who campaigned for the Democratic nomination and promised that, if elected, he would redistribute the vast wealth of the 1% to poorer families, has dubbed Trump’s top team the “cabinet of billionaires”.
cattle-class, adj.
The Guardian, 7 September 2016:
It follows London to Essex operator c2c introducing its own metro service last year, refurbishing 20% of its trains by stripping out seats, creating more standing space and introducing overhead hand straps to help pack in 150 extra passengers on rush hour services.
Commuters coming into Birmingham, the UK’s second biggest metropolitan area, are also likely to experience the subtle shift towards a metro-style, cattle-class journey soon.
challenge run, n.
When it comes to games, I’m not alone in my obsessive pursuit of self-imposed restrictions. The concept of the “challenge run” – where players voluntarily add constraints to their playthroughs – is increasingly popular. A quick search on Twitch or YouTube will yield hundreds of results, whether it’s taking on the exceedingly tough Dark Souls Soul Level One challenge, racing against time finishing epics like Deus Ex in under an hour, or completing something like Fallout 3: New Vegas without killing anyone (or instead, killing everyone, if that’s your bag).
chickenshit minimalism, n.
Maciej Cegłowski, 01 February 2016:
These Apple sites exemplify what I call Chickenshit Minimalism. It's the prevailing design aesthetic of today's web.I wrote an essay about this on Medium. Since this is a fifty minute talk, please indulge me while I read it to you in its entirety:
"Chickenshit Minimalism: the illusion of simplicity backed by megabytes of cruft."
chyron, n.
The Guardian, 22 November 2016:
And yet, still, headlines were tentative. The New York Times gesticulated wildly toward Nazism without actually using the word (“Alt-Right Exults in Donald Trump’s Election With a Salute: ‘Heil Victory’”), and a CNN panel managed to avoid saying “Nazi” entirely, despite discussing a chyron that read, “Alt-right founder questions if Jews are people.”
counterspeech, n.
The Guardian, 22 February 2016:
Last autumn, Facebook launched a project with the thinktank Demos on what it calls “counterspeech”, providing alternatives to extremist narratives, and it has recently begun working with academics at King’s College London who specialise in jihadi propaganda. It doesn’t have all the answers yet, says Milner, but “what does work is the kind of thing Sheryl was talking about: humour and warmth”. If extremists seek to spread fear and shock, counterspeech might aim to make them look small and ridiculous. Facebook now plans to build a network of NGOs across Europe and beyond, cultivating a grassroots counter-narrative to jihadi propaganda. The question that it’s grappling with, says Milner, is almost “how do we enable empathy in a crowd as opposed to individuals?”
courier cloud, n.
The Guardian, 11 January 2016:
There are diverse asides – on how tall buildings are constructed and her love life, for example – which take the reader away from the teeming streets and slow the pace: to use a cycling analogy, they felt like a rim rubbing on the brake. She is particularly sensitive to the solidarity that exists among the unlikely crew of mavericks, artists, economic migrants, PhD students, people between careers and incurable outsiders that make up what she calls the “courier cloud”.
courierhood, n.
The Guardian, 11 January 2016:
I desperately wanted to read a book about the “courierhood” then. Wait 25 years and three are printed at almost the same time. Jon Day’s lucid essay Cyclogeography came out last July. The long-distance cyclist and campaigner Julian Sayarer’s Messengers is published this January, as is Emily Chappell’s beautifully written debut.
cypherphone, n.
TRI, the maker of the liquid-metal cypherphone, the Turing Phone, “the company foresaw the potential issues of data encryption and global government covert surveillance programs ever since mid-2013 and it made a decisive move to be established in Finland,” the company said in a statement.
day-and-date release, n.
The “day-and-date” release is not an entirely new concept. Smaller films have been launched on both theatrical and digital platforms simultaneously for a few years now, with some notable success stories. Last year, the Oscar-nominated drama 45 Years became the highest-grossing and widest-playing film to have utilised this strategy, making around £2m despite being available at home at the same time.
deadstock, n.
For the novice, understanding trainer chic can be as hard to get your head around as Libor. For starters, sellers focus on “deadstock”, a name given to pristine unworn shoes. Then there is figuring out which way the fashion wind is blowing. Forums earnestly debate subjects such as, “What do Chinese sneakerheads think about Yeezys?” and, “Is the Jordan hype slowing down?”.
deep tech, n.
The paper looks at a study carried out by the international investment group Atomico which says that deep tech companies are blossoming in Europe. These are companies whose operations are grounded in demanding technological development, as contrasted to companies based on a business model, such as Uber.
deja vu-quel, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2016:
This latest exhilarating, good-natured and enjoyable adventure from the Star Wars imaginary universe is written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, and directed by Britain’s Gareth Edwards; it comes from a time which now doesn’t seem so very long ago. The film’s action occurs some time between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV, A New Hope. So it’s a mid-quel or a deja vu-quel. Character archetypes, mythic confrontations, desperate hologram messages, dads real and quasi-, uniforms and hairstyles are always rising recognisably to the surface. Like superhero films or westerns or romcoms, Star Wars invented its own recurring generic components, and to complain or even notice now seems almost as beside the point as recognising familiar chord progressions in the blues. It is noticeable that the newish motif of the defector or renegade, which featured in The Force Awakens, pops up again here.
dialectical rap, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
But as Lagos has gentrified over the last decade, sprouting with trees and parks, street markets reincarnated as shopping complexes, intersections colonised by Domino’s Pizza and Cold Stone ice cream, there has been a new wave of indigenous or dialectical rap music – hip-hop that fuses street slang with native dialect.
dialectical rap music, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
But as Lagos has gentrified over the last decade, sprouting with trees and parks, street markets reincarnated as shopping complexes, intersections colonised by Domino’s Pizza and Cold Stone ice cream, there has been a new wave of indigenous or dialectical rap music – hip-hop that fuses street slang with native dialect.
digital dark age, n.
The Long + Short, 12 May 2016:
Today, we tend to assume that digital files are permanent, don't degrade and don't need looking after to the same extent as physical materials like vellum or microfilm. But this is an illusion: few things age faster than technology. Numerous archivists and IT researchers express concerns about a possible "digital dark age" – a future scenario in which today's carefully digitised files become inaccessible as their technology is rendered obsolete. Think only of your own MiniDiscs, VHS tapes or floppy disks. In Finland, every file is digitised in three formats (two different JPEGs and an 'original' TIFF, a format archivists regard as unlikely to be rendered obsolete) to help militate against such developments. Each of these TIFFs is stored on two separate tapes in different locations by a governmental non-profit in Espoo, Finland's second city. A good old-fashioned fire therefore remains a significant problem, although – unlike in the days of the Library of Alexandria – digitisation, like the printing press, has increased document security through multiple copies and multiple locations.
direct-to-series, adj.
The Guardian, 24 January 2016:
Sources say Hulu, the biggest competitor to Netflix’s pioneering business model, had to order two seasons of the forthcoming Hugh Laurie drama Chance to keep it from being sold elsewhere. And production budgets have risen: Netflix’s first big hit, House of Cards, cost a reported $100m for its initial order of two seasons. Across TV, direct-to-series orders are coming thick and fast as prices balloon – there are, after all, more places than ever to sell your script.
double tap, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
MSF said on Thursday that a total of 94 airstrikes and shelling attacks hit facilities supported by the organisation in 2015 alone, in 12 cases leading to the total destruction of the facility. Some hospitals also suffered from “double tap” attacks, where a second airstrike targets paramedics and EMTs who arrive at the scene to rescue the wounded, between 20-60 minutes after the first bombing.
double tap attack, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
MSF said on Thursday that a total of 94 airstrikes and shelling attacks hit facilities supported by the organisation in 2015 alone, in 12 cases leading to the total destruction of the facility. Some hospitals also suffered from “double tap” attacks, where a second airstrike targets paramedics and EMTs who arrive at the scene to rescue the wounded, between 20-60 minutes after the first bombing.
down rounds, n.
The Guardian, 22 January 2016:
The last few months have been hard on Silicon Valley startups, as a series of “down rounds” across the tech world chop established companies in half and stock collapses move billionaires back to millionaires. There’s a sense that San Francisco’s excess is peaking; investors asking for their money back, house-flipping seminars popping up across Facebook, and gold-flaked pizza signal the end of times.
drone ship, n.
The Guardian, 18 January 2016:
To that end, SpaceX has been attempting to land the rockets back safely on a stable surface, rather than letting them drop into the ocean as is typical for launches. It has a purpose-built unmanned “drone ship” built for the purpose (named “Just Read the Instructions” in honour of the science fiction author Iain M Banks) and the rockets are armed with small thrusters to control their descent.
droneship, n.
The Guardian, 18 January 2016:
This year’s landing went much better, relatively speaking. The rocket landed vertically, and three of the four legs were successfully locked into place. Unfortunately, the fourth did not. Musk shared a video of the landing and subsequent explosion, adding: “Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn’t latch on one of the four legs, causing it to tip over post landing. Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff.”
drynx, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
A spirit animal of sorts, the fursona can be just about any real or mythological creature the individual feels connected to. Dogs and big cats never go out of style, though hybrids like “folves” (fox + wolf) and “drynx” (dragon + lynx) are catching on.
emojibot, n.
Coupla emojibots: Why is there an emoji for that @butnoemoji for this? And tiny people waiting for the tiny bus at the @tiny_bus_stop!
empathy games, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
Abandoning the idea of running, jumping, and shooting has opened up the world of gaming to relatively new genres like empathy games (see That Dragon, Cancer, and Depression Quest) and "walking simulators" (Proteus, Gone Home). Some designers have gone one step further by reconfiguring or tossing aside the notion of playing. Here are a few local examples of powerful, but minimally interactive, artworks.
end of life, v.
Sauce Labs (email), 2 September 2016:
Due to limited usage and a better user experience in the new UI we’ve decided to end of life old user interface on October 30th, 2016. Right after that deadline, all of our users will be defaulted to the new UI, and controls to switch back will be removed.
escalumps, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
We might be bad at dancing and expressing our feelings, but say this for the British: when we settle on a convention of public order, we bloody well stick to it. We wait in line. We leave the last biscuit. And when we take the escalator, we stand on the right. The left is reserved for people in a hurry. In Washington DC, those who block the way are known as “escalumps”; here, they can expect the public humiliation of a tutting sound just over their shoulder. “Passengers just don’t like having these things changed,” says Celia Harrison, a Transport for London (TfL) customer strategy analyst, and one of the key people responsible for this heretical deviation from the norm. “I’ve worked on stations for many years. So I was aware that whatever we did people weren’t going to be comfortable about having their routine disturbed.”
faithless elector, n.
The Guardian, 19 December 2016:
In the end, the so-called “faithless electors” of the US electoral college failed resoundingly in their aim to stop Donald Trump from reaching the White House. But they did strike a small but significant blow for reform of America’s arcane way of choosing the president.
fanpeople, n.
At the very least, it’s a turn of events. Doctor Who’s current Doctor, Peter Capaldi, has been doing the rounds this week, promoting the DVD of his recent, best, series from last year. A couple of surprising revelations have transpired. He has said he will start filming the next series – the last he is contracted for – fairly imminently. This set fanpeople alight, with the realisation that Jenna Coleman’s replacement as companion must soon be announced. It also gave credibility to the press rumour that Rakhee Thakrar from EastEnders could be the new leading lady. Those stories described Thakrar as one of the “people currently in the frame”, though anyone who knows anything about actor contracts will know the casting decision must have been made months ago.
fat finger error, n.
Potential causes of sterling flash crash that compounded earlier losses include ‘fat finger’ error and computer-generated trade
flash crash, n.
Naeem Aslam, the chief market analyst at currency trader Think Markets, said: “What we had was insane – call it flash crash, but the move of this magnitude really tells you how low the currency can really go. Hard Brexit has haunted sterling.”
folves, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
A spirit animal of sorts, the fursona can be just about any real or mythological creature the individual feels connected to. Dogs and big cats never go out of style, though hybrids like “folves” (fox + wolf) and “drynx” (dragon + lynx) are catching on.
Forceback, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
A key sequence in JJ Abrams’s blockbuster space opera reboot featured lead character Rey (Daisy Ridley) experiencing visions of the past – the segue has been dubbed the “Forceback” by fans – including Kylo Ren’s attack on Skywalker’s Jedi Academy and herself as a young child.
frosé, n.
The Guardian, 29 August 2016:
Frosé: this summer’s hottest drinks trend is a wine Slush Puppie
Frozen rosé is a hit in London and New York’s finest bars – and wine experts are horrified
fuckboyism, n.
The Wesleyan Argus, 26 March 2015:
Some have attributed the word’s popularity to the sound itself.“It has a certain ring to it, ‘fuckboy,” Bass-Krueger said. “There’s a mystery, an enigma behind it where you try to parse fuckboyism. It just gets more confusing the further you go. It’s best not understood.”
full-susser, n. full-suspension (mountain) bicycle
The Boardman MTB Pro FS; one of the UK’s favourite full-sussers just got better
funky fit-out, n.
The Guardian, 27 February 2016:
The Melbourne look is an early example of what a recent report by the British Council for Offices (BCO), entitled What Workers Want, calls “a funky fit-out”. It has become quite widespread in recent years. Mind Candy, which produces the children’s video game Moshi Monsters, has a gingerbread house in its London headquarters. Airbnb HQ has miniature apartments modelled on its listings around the world – so you can sit on a sofa even though you’re at work. The London office of Ticketmaster has a slide. Actually, this is such a common feature in tech workplaces (complete with fake grass to slide on to) that I imagine dozens of slides stacked next to the filing cabinets and desks in office supplies warehouses. Infantilism is a common theme, the idea being that staff might rediscover the imaginative playfulness they last exhibited aged about three.
funsultant, n.
The Guardian, 12 December 2016:
In The Wellness Syndrome, the book I wrote with Carl Cederström, we took a look at the increasing fascination with happiness at work. We found a growing industry of “funsultants” offering advice on how to make workforces more positive. Firms such as Zappos have started to employ chief happiness officers. There is also a booming field of management research on positivity at work.
furries, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“Furry fandom is unique among fan cultures in that we are not consumers, but rather creators,” Kage explains. “Star Trek fans are chasing someone else’s dream. Furries create our own fandom.“
furry, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“I do think ‘fursectution’ is real,” says Gerbasi (who does not identify as a furry), using a portmanteau term referring to perceived persecution of the fandom from outside elements. “And I think it’s because people are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
furry fandom, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Furry fandom, an obscure subculture united in their passion for all things anthropomorphic, can be lucrative business – because artisanal fursuits are haute-couture.
fursectution, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“I do think ‘fursectution’ is real,” says Gerbasi (who does not identify as a furry), using a portmanteau term referring to perceived persecution of the fandom from outside elements. “And I think it’s because people are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
fursona, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
To this day, Dee has brought more than 300 “fursonas” (furry personas) to life – including Baltoro the Fox, realistic with taxidermy eyes, hand-molded silicon paws and muzzle and digitigrade hind legs; Zeke the Hyena, cartoonish with hand-stitched stripes and airbrushed abs; and Blaze, a vixen with flirty eyelashes and curvaceously padded chest.
fursuit, v.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
“Cartoon animals have a universal appeal,” says Conway, who fursuits as ‘Uncle Kage’: a samurai cockroach. “A love of animals and a fascination with the idea of them acting as we do transcends most national, geographic and religious boundaries.”
fursuit, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
New costume makers enter the market every week and fursuits gets ever more advanced: at an additional cost, jaws can move, tails wag and eyes light up with LED-lights. No two creations are alike, though most can be machine-washed and kept shiny with a few strokes with a pet brush.
game poem, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
A game poem in its purest form, Charles Elwonger's Lost Thing rewards several play-throughs despite its unchanging plot. Lasting only a few minutes depending on the speed at which you digest the words, sounds, and imagery, that's not a tall order. The player interaction – holding down the space bar or mouse to continue to the next animated frame – might appear to be mere frippery, but like good poetry, every element is purposeful. Advancing the story involves inducing a short but clear breath sound. This gives the spare figure onscreen a sense of animation and helps players identify with the identity-challenged protagonist. The static-y visuals juxtaposed with crisp sound design imbues the short poem with a pleasantly contradictory sense of realism and surrealism, like a dream of something quotidian.
Generation Smartphone, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
My disposable camera pics always came back plastered with those oval “Quality Control” stickers. There should be an iPhone app for that. You’re right about boredom – that’s when daydreams happen and creativity germinates. I worry about Generation Smartphone always being “on”. A new survey found that time spent working out of hours on phones and tablets averages 29 days per year – more than most annual holiday allowances. Freckly thesp Eddie Redmayne recently revealed that he’s swapped his smartphone for a retro housebrick handset in a bid to stop constantly checking emails and start living in the moment.
A quick search doesn't turn up much apart from that Guardian article: this undated travel blog and this talk title at the 3 Nov 2015 World Travel Market conference. It's possible travel firms are using it, but if so as internal jargon, and they're clearly not advertising with it.
This 25 February 2016 blog post, but then it's on the site of the travel firm whose research is mentioned in the 20 February 2016 Guardian article, and they have quite similar content...
genervacation, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
While the rise of what travel firms are calling the “genervacation” has been building for some time, it has received a turbo boost from pension reforms and soaring property prices.
ghost driver, n.
The Guardian, 22 September 2016:
China has a so-called “ghost driver” problem, with Uber passengers being scammed out of rides and money, fearful of being picked up by what looks like a zombie. According to local reports, pick-up requests are being met by Uber drivers using zombie-like profile shots to scare would-be passengers into cancelling their rides, which means the driver is paid a small cancellation fee.
glowing god, n. a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
I’m not asking for jolly chats over the counter. I don’t feel too jolly in most shops, so shudder to think how the poor staff feel. Just some eye contact, pleases and thank yous would restore my faith in human nature. I’m aware I sound like Prince Charles/the Dowager Countess/my own nan but just fear we’re beginning to prioritise Mr I Phone (his first name’s probably Ian) over our fellow citizens. Couples go out for dinner and spend the entire time with their heads bent in silent supplication to the glowing god. People – of all ages, agreed – choose the bleeping attention-sponge over the friends sitting next to them.
GOAT, n.
The favorite rapper discussion is cool and all, but the coveted distinction in hip-hop is still being named the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The GOAT discussion is reserved for the chosen few; no rookies or new jacks qualify. It’s strictly for the catalog artists, people who have shifted the culture in previously unmovable ways, artists whose music has permeated and resonated over an extended period of time. It’s rap’s imaginary Hall of Fame, existing only within the abstract conversations we have about it. Since it has to consider the entire canon of hip-hop, the discussion ought to be reserved for more refined debate among only the most informed parties.
golden table, n.
Every restaurant has a "golden table" apparently, where they seat the coolest looking, most attractive customers, so they can give off a message about the place. Yes, I believe I'm quite familiar with the golden table, having been fortunate enough to have often been swiftly ushered there in a number of establishments. In a cosy corner towards the rear, right? Intimate, not too bright, very handy for the loo, classy.
GovtOS, n.
The New York Times, 18 March 2016:
Apple said in court filings last month that it would take from six to 10 engineers up to a month to meet the government’s demands. However, because Apple is so compartmentalized, the challenge of building what the company described as “GovtOS” would be substantially complicated if key employees refused to do the work.
Greatest of All Time, n.
Complex, 05 January 2016:
The favorite rapper discussion is cool and all, but the coveted distinction in hip-hop is still being named the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The GOAT discussion is reserved for the chosen few; no rookies or new jacks qualify. It’s strictly for the catalog artists, people who have shifted the culture in previously unmovable ways, artists whose music has permeated and resonated over an extended period of time. It’s rap’s imaginary Hall of Fame, existing only within the abstract conversations we have about it. Since it has to consider the entire canon of hip-hop, the discussion ought to be reserved for more refined debate among only the most informed parties.
grey phase, n.
Steering the flow of mass migration is a typical method in the arsenal of the so-called "grey phase" of hybrid warfare."The events of Salla and Raja-Jooseppi can be seen as methods of pressure consciously used by Russia," Paronen says. "It is still premature to use wartime terminology because other aspects of hybrid warfare such as conventional armed conflict have obviously not arisen."
grip-lit, n.
The Guardian, 29 January 2016:
The Bookseller magazine remembers otherwise. In a puzzling article in its most recent issue, it refers to “grip-lit” (AKA the gripping psychological thriller) in a way that suggests it is a trend belonging to last year and, if we’re lucky, this year too – unless the people rise as one and declare their preference for “boreytoolong-lit”, which seems unlikely.
grow-’em-up, n.
The Guardian, 29 February 2016:
Games exploring real-world issues include Endgame: Syria and Papers, Please and others splice together new genres, such as Framed, with its motion-comic puzzles, and ambient grow-’em-up Prune.
halo, n.
The Guardian, 25 January 2016:
Formula One drivers are calling for a new safety device to be installed in their cockpits from 2017, hoping the so-called halo will prevent serious injury from flying debris.
handhorse, n.
Mikael Colville-Andersen, 25 February 2016:
Sometimes you need to ride with two bikes. This is me doing what we call in Danish a "handhorse". Håndhest. Like so many other things related to cycling, the word came from an equestrian angle. #copenhagen #VikingBiking
hard Brexit, n.
Financial Times, 6 November 2016:
Thus a promise to dispense with the European Court of Justice (“hard Brexit”, in the phrase banned in Downing Street) has had to be balanced by a promise to Japanese carmaker Nissan that it will not lose access to the single market (soft Brexit). There are countless such circles to be squared. Then there are the voters. Will they be enthusiastic about Brexit a year from now when sterling’s fall is feeding through into cuts in living standards?
hard brick, n.
Soft bricking might be a more correct term.
A soft brick is a brick that can be fixed via a complicated yet real method. It is opposed to a hard brick (paperweight).
holiday-shame, v.
The Guardian, 04 January 2016:
Barbados or bust? Why we shouldn’t holiday-shame public figures
honeybot, n.
Over the past few months, I’ve been making a handful of “honeybots”– bots that act as a honeypot for Twitter troll. There are a lot of people on Twitter who search for specific terms and then yell at people who mention them; they go on about topics that range from chemtrails and the flat earth to various alt-right people with cult followings to atheism. A handful of bullies particularly like to search for people who mention them negatively and then retweet those people to their followers, leading a harassment mob to their virtual door.
hybrid operations, n.
"In addition to seeing how a country's official bureaucracy and administrative system copes with migration, hybrid operations also gauge how a country's population reacts to dramatic events," Paronen analyses. "It's a matter of surveying the national mood."
hybrid troll, n.
One project examined 200,000 comments posted on Latvia’s three main online news portals between 29 July and 5 August 2014. It found 1.45% of those comments were from “hybrid trolls”, a phenomenon that came to light recently when it emerged that Russia had set up warehouses in which an army of bloggers sat day and night, charged with flooding the internet with comments favourable to Russian interests. But in some stories, more than half of the comments were by Russian trolls – identified partly by their poor grammar, repetition of content and IP address.
hybrid warfare, n.
Steering the flow of mass migration is a typical method in the arsenal of the so-called "grey phase" of hybrid warfare."The events of Salla and Raja-Jooseppi can be seen as methods of pressure consciously used by Russia," Paronen says. "It is still premature to use wartime terminology because other aspects of hybrid warfare such as conventional armed conflict have obviously not arisen."
hyper-reality rap, n.
From Clipse to TI, the trap was rap’s reigning metaphor during the first decade of the 21st century, a reference to the place where drugs are sold but also the idea of that life as a dead end (along with the related idea of luring and enslaving the clientele, mostly members of the dealer’s own race, class, community). In Drake’s decade, the 2010s, fame itself – the escape-route alternative to crime pursued by gangsta rappers – has become a trap of its own. The godfathers of gangsta, NWA talked about “reality rap”; Drake’s self-invented genre is unreality rap, or perhaps hyper-reality rap. Both the mise-en-scène and the topics of his songs – penthouse suites, after-show parties, VIP rooms, award shows, inter-celebrity dating, internet gossip, the proliferation of the public self as an image and a meme – are remote from the world most of us inhabit. We gawp at it from the outside. Drake’s art is all about achieving access to this hyper-real world – a realm of front, rumour, bravado, optics, public relations – and then bemoaning how unreal it feels to live inside it. The glittering insubstantiality of the music – which resembles Harold Budd, Aphex Twin and Radiohead circa Kid A as much as Timbaland, the Weeknd or DJ Mustard – is the perfect aural match for the mirrored maze of modern celebreality. The airless sound evokes the sealed vacuum of loneliness-at-the-top.
idgi, initialism I don't get it
MustardCreams, 22 February 2016:
That damn Daniel thing isn't even good idgi
incel, n.
The Guardian, 15 November 2016:
I know about the “men going their own way” movement, which is based around the idea that men should avoid any sort of romantic or sexual relationship with women. I’m aware of “traditional marriage” advocates, who often argue that you should aim to marry a very young woman as she’s likely to be easier to control. I also learned the difference between an “incel” who is involuntarily celibate, and a “volcel” who makes a deliberate choice to avoid sexual activity, and sometimes also masturbation, often in the belief that ejaculation depletes their testosterone and saps them of masculine power.
incentivised review, n.
The Guardian, 20 September 2016:
So-called incentivised reviews, where people are given products in return for write-ups on Amazon, are skewing results, artificially increasing the star ratings, according to a report.
indigenous rap, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
When I was growing up, middle-class kids like me rarely admitted to understanding a native language, let alone speaking it. These days, things are different: it is uncool to have nothing but English in your language arsenal. Indigenous rap in Lagos has exceeded its expectations to the extent that some new rappers have been accused of class appropriation to sell their music. Brands are following suit, with ad campaigns in pidgin and local languages. TV programmes are doing the same.
internetification, n.
Instagram hasn’t helped: in the past few years, tight fitnesswear worn in or, increasingly, outside the gym has become acceptable to post. Ditto the way we post it – usually in the mirror, usually with the wearer’s iPhone camera in shot, so as to reclaim ownership of the image. It says: I am wearing this and I am photographing this and you, the viewer, are secondary. Concurrently, bikini shots appear to be on the decline, especially ones taken by your mates – which objectify the wearer by default. And yet, in terms of body coverage and flesh-flashing, they are one and the same, even if the latter focuses on celebrating women’s bodies rather than fetishising them. The internetification of self-image might have changed but the clothes haven’t.
JAM, n.
The Guardian, 20 November 2016:
In a hint that he would offer some help to the so-called Jams – “just about managing” – on Wednesday, Hammond said he would support people “who work hard and by and large do not feel that they are sharing in the prosperity that economic growth is bringing to the country”.
ladyblog, n.
Slate, 23 February 2016:
The saga began in 2008, when Rebecca Solnit published an essay called “Men Explain Things to Me.” Though Solnit didn’t use the word mansplain, she recounted an anecdote in which a man—“with that smug look I know so well … eyes fixed on the fuzzy far horizon of his own authority”—proceeded to enlighten her as to the contents of her own book. Soon, the term mansplain was kicking around in Livejournal comments and ladyblogs. It meant something like “to declaim, as a male and in a patronizing fashion, on a subject about which you know little, to a woman who knows more.” Jezebel gave mansplaining its own topic tag. Citizen Radio introduced “The Adventures of Mansplainer,” a boldhearted gent with the courage and acuity to set ladies straight on catcalling and workplace sexism. The Tumblr Academic Men Explain Things to Me carved out a safe space for “women to recount their experience being mansplained, in academia and elsewhere.” Gleeful meme-ophiles were treated to the suave paternalism and hard-bodied fatuity of “Mansplaining Paul Ryan.”
late bird, adj.
Only 8 more late bird tickets available for @OpenVisConf! You should definitely grab one if you're intending to come. This is likely it\!
late bird ticket, n.
Only 8 more late bird tickets available for @OpenVisConf! You should definitely grab one if you're intending to come. This is likely it!
leaderless jihad, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
During this period, when it came to attacking western targets, Isis and other groups encouraged individuals to act alone. This strategy, which some analysts called “leaderless jihad”, was based partly on theories developed in the early 2000s by an independent militant strategist known as Abu Musab al-Suri. His adage was that extremist activists needed “principles, not organisations” and should be empowered to act as individuals, guided by texts they could find online, without necessarily belonging to any one group.
liberal sciences, n.
The Register, 13 February 2016:
That brilliance is swiftly put on display when Khosla coins his own new term and tells you he has just done so. It's "the liberal sciences" in place of "the liberal arts" and he even proposes a test for it: the ability to "understand and discuss the Economist, end-to-end, every week."
lifenthusiast, n.
The day before yesterday ConwayLife.com forums saw a new member named zdr. When we the lifenthusiasts meet a newcomer, we expect to see things like “brand new” 30-cell 700-gen methuselah and then have to explain why it is not notable. However, what zdr showed us made our jaws drop.
like attack, n.
The Guardian, 22 February 2016:
Lately, Facebook’s plans for promoting harmony have become significantly more ambitious. Last month, its chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, provoked raised eyebrows in Davos by suggesting users could help undermine jihadi propaganda with a concerted counter-offensive of what can only be described as organised niceness. She cited a recent “like attack” staged by German users, who swamped a neo-Nazi group’s Facebook page with messages of inclusivity and tolerance.
liquidmorphium, n.
Turing Phone is TRI’s first smart phone and entirely crowdfunded. The phone is made of liquidmorphium, an “amorphous “liquid metal” alloy tougher than either titanium or steel”.
lmk, initialism let me know
Darius Kazemi, 17 January 2016:
Relatedly if anyone wants to grab tea in SE Portland this evening lmk
local rap music, n.
The Guardian, 25 February 2016:
“Dialectical rap or local rap music has finally broken barriers because you don’t need to hear what we are saying,” Illbliss says. “There is the rhythm, there is the sway, there are the catchphrases and the slogans. It’s almost like I want my people to know your people. If I get on a song with say Olamide or Lil Kesh, it is a seamless exchange where I carry my culture to them and they bring their culture to me. Even our leadership has never unified Nigerians as much as music.”
long Brexit, n.
Financial Times, 6 November 2016:
A hard Brexit or something softer? Theresa May refuses to admit the choice between a clean break or a continuing close association once Britain quits the EU. Privately as well as publicly, the prime minister dismisses binary alternatives. She prefers to contemplate what you might call a “long” Brexit. Britain will be out of the union within two years or so but nothing too disruptive will happen until many years beyond that.
magic pocket-sized rectangle, n. smartphone
Smartphones, Instagram, Snapchat, and generous data plans have closed that distance again in many ways...or more precisely, have made the distance less relevant. Interacting with 190 friends dozens or even hundreds of times a day probably feels a lot like being back in a hunter/gatherer band, socially speaking. Thanks to these magic pocket-sized rectangles, everyone you know in the world is never more than a few seconds away for more than a few hours.
manner mode, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
In Japan it’s considered polite to switch your phone to “Manner Mode” (an excellent way of describing what we might think of as “silent”) when using the metro, so that other passengers aren’t subjected to ringtones galore as they travel.
manosphere, n.
The Guardian, 15 November 2016:
For several years now, I’ve had a dark and fairly unusual hobby. When I’m alone and bored and the mood strikes me, I’ll open up my laptop and head for a particularly unsavoury corner of the internet.No, not the bit you’re thinking of. Somewhere far worse. That loose network of blogs, forums, subreddits and alternative media publications colloquially known as the “manosphere”. An online subculture centred around hatred, anger and resentment of feminism specifically, and women more broadly. It’s grimly fascinating and now troubling relevant.
mass trespass, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.
MAV, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
It flies like a bird, it was inspired by a bat and it could in every sense take off: a new British unmanned Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) can skim over the waves, splash down and take off and change wingshape in responses to the forces it encounters.
Mavens, n.
There remain some fans of Marissa Mayer, the CEO at Yahoo, because she has managed to acquire some good businesses in Tumblr and Flurry, and these are assets which now have a greater value than when she bought them - at results conferences she refers to these and other online businesses as Mavens – standing for Mobile, Video, Native and Social, and by native she means native advertising.
mechanical doping, n. aka technological fraud, mechanical fraud, motorized doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
Motors scandal: Indications that Belgian Under 23 rider becomes the first to be caught for mechanical doping
mechanical fraud, n. aka mechanical doping, technological fraud, motorized doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
“Our auditors made checks at the start and during the race in the pit and they have established mechanical fraud,” stated UCI coordinator Peter Van den Abeele to Sporza. “For the UCI this the first time that technological fraud is detected and for us this is a downer.
mess work, n. cycle-messenger work
Chelsea Marie: Well, I work as a bike ambassador for Transportation Alternatives and as a messenger on my off days. There is so many ways in which TA and mess work has contributed to my life of cycling. Transportation Alternatives advocates for people who commute throughout NYC without using a car and we pretty much fight for a commuter’s safety by petitioning for protected bike lanes, more time for crossing the street or easier ways of taking public transportation because cars can be a vicious thing in the wrong hands and with being out in the field reaching out to so many people from all walks of life, it’s really showed me how just riding a bike could bring spread out communities closer together. If you want to ride a bike it shows me that you want to change the world, help create a healthier world; so it’s given me a chance to really meet some amazing people and have great connections into different aspects of the cycling world other than racing. Also, being a messenger part time is a great way to keep me in shape, keep me zooming around the city that I love and show me many new places the city has popping up every single day.
mid-quel, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2016:
This latest exhilarating, good-natured and enjoyable adventure from the Star Wars imaginary universe is written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, and directed by Britain’s Gareth Edwards; it comes from a time which now doesn’t seem so very long ago. The film’s action occurs some time between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV, A New Hope. So it’s a mid-quel or a deja vu-quel. Character archetypes, mythic confrontations, desperate hologram messages, dads real and quasi-, uniforms and hairstyles are always rising recognisably to the surface. Like superhero films or westerns or romcoms, Star Wars invented its own recurring generic components, and to complain or even notice now seems almost as beside the point as recognising familiar chord progressions in the blues. It is noticeable that the newish motif of the defector or renegade, which featured in The Force Awakens, pops up again here.
mile-eater, n.
The Brooks Blog, 25 January 2016:
Since it was established in 1911 by Cycling magazine, only a handful of cyclists have combined the physical stamina and psychological drive to take on the Year Record. The heyday of mile-eating was in the 1930s when bicycles and roads were much improved but the car had not yet taken over. In 1939 the Year Record was put ‘out of reach’ by Tommy Godwin, a British racing cyclist whose reputation as cycling’s ultimate mile-eater is unsurpassed. Not only did Godwin ride a unimaginably large distances (an average 205 miles a day with many days in excess of 300 miles) but suffered crashes, illness and two freezing British winters. He carried on through the outbreak of the second world war, air raids, blackouts, food rationing and the threat of being conscripted hanging over him. Godwin’s total of 75065 miles – 205 miles a day – that was the target for the two challengers who set out in January 2015.
mile-eating, v.
The Brooks Blog, 25 January 2016:
Since it was established in 1911 by Cycling magazine, only a handful of cyclists have combined the physical stamina and psychological drive to take on the Year Record. The heyday of mile-eating was in the 1930s when bicycles and roads were much improved but the car had not yet taken over. In 1939 the Year Record was put ‘out of reach’ by Tommy Godwin, a British racing cyclist whose reputation as cycling’s ultimate mile-eater is unsurpassed. Not only did Godwin ride a unimaginably large distances (an average 205 miles a day with many days in excess of 300 miles) but suffered crashes, illness and two freezing British winters. He carried on through the outbreak of the second world war, air raids, blackouts, food rationing and the threat of being conscripted hanging over him. Godwin’s total of 75065 miles – 205 miles a day – that was the target for the two challengers who set out in January 2015.
mini-'slab, n. a mini fondleslab, a small tablet computing device
The Register, 18 November 2014:
N1 mini-'slab to plop into crowded pond next year
mishap, n. military euphemism for a terrible crash
Washington Post, 19 January 2016:
Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force’s newest and most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon’s favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups....
These accidents are categorized by the military as Class A: mishaps that destroyed the aircraft or caused at least $2 million in damage.
mishap rate, n. expressed in decamicrocrashes per hour
Washington Post, 19 January 2016:
The Reaper’s mishap rate — the number of major crashes per 100,000 hours flown — more than doubled compared with 2014. The aircraft, when fully equipped, cost about $14 million each to replace.
MOBA, n.
The Guardian, 29 February 2016:
Vainglory’s innovation lies in bringing one of the most hardcore game genres – multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) – to touchscreen devices. It works beautifully, too, with the fast response times and the frenetic action fans of the genre demand.
motorised doping, n. aka technological fraud, mechanical fraud, mechanical doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
More details emerge about motorised doping at cyclocross worlds
Mr I Phone, n. a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
I’m not asking for jolly chats over the counter. I don’t feel too jolly in most shops, so shudder to think how the poor staff feel. Just some eye contact, pleases and thank yous would restore my faith in human nature. I’m aware I sound like Prince Charles/the Dowager Countess/my own nan but just fear we’re beginning to prioritise Mr I Phone (his first name’s probably Ian) over our fellow citizens. Couples go out for dinner and spend the entire time with their heads bent in silent supplication to the glowing god. People – of all ages, agreed – choose the bleeping attention-sponge over the friends sitting next to them.
multiplayer online battle arena, n.
The Guardian, 29 February 2016:
Vainglory’s innovation lies in bringing one of the most hardcore game genres – multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) – to touchscreen devices. It works beautifully, too, with the fast response times and the frenetic action fans of the genre demand.
NARP, n.
ME: Wait. Really? I have like 30.BROOKE: OMG!! 30?? Only NARPs have less than 150.
ME: What the hell is a NARP?
BROOKE: Nonathletic Regular Person. NARP.
ME: Ah. So…I’m basic?
BROOKE: Yeah.
new bastards, n.
The Guardian, 13 December 2016:
The group has been characterised as the “new bastards” in reference to the anti-EU backbench rebels who haunted John Major in the 1990s. However, those planning to attend insisted they were not aiming to make trouble.
ornithopter, n.
The Guardian, 18 February 2016:
Flapping wing drones or ornithopters may have the edge over aircraft-like designs, and there are drone projects that mimic the way birds find and ride thermals to gain height. Other researchers have developed drones that can perch on branches or wires with the feet based on the talons of a hawk.
parklet, n.
City of Helsinki, 25 May 2016:
A parklet is a sidewalk extension on a street parking space, which is temporarily put to some other use than parking. A business can lease a parklet, for example, for a café terrace, green space or some other activity suitable for the street environment.
pay what you wish, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
Mirror Lake
Katie Rose Pipkin
Pay what you wish
Available on browsers and for download
persuasive design, n.
The Guardian, 22 February 2016:
It’s a classic example of what BJ Fogg, a Stanford-based behavioural scientist who specialises in the psychology of Facebook, calls persuasive design: if you want people to do something, don’t explain why, just show them how. Humans learn by imitation, which means modelling nice behaviour beats lecturing people to be nice.
piss-pots, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Self added: “This is part of a gathering campaign to resist what I call ‘piss-pots’, Public Space Protection Orders which are a kind of extension of the law into the very psyche of the urban stroller. This is non-trivial.”
plain-speak, v.
The Guardian, 22 November 2016:
So I was heartened yesterday when KUOW, a public radio station in Seattle, released a statement announcing that they will be substituting “white supremacy” or “white nationalism” for “alt-right”. The reasoning, laid out in a memo to staff: “‘Alt right’ doesn’t mean anything, and normalises something that is far from normal. So we need to plain-speak it.”
Planet Nine, n.
The Guardian, 20 January 2016:
If the researchers have their sums right, the mysterious new world is 10 times more massive than Earth and up to four times the size. Nicknamed Planet Nine, it moves on an extremely elongated orbit, and takes a staggering 10,000 to 20,000 years to swing once around the sun.
plushophilia, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Stereotyped as less innocent than they look by mainstream media, furries tend to get a bad rap. A 2001 Vanity Fair article brought up both bestiality and plushophilia (sexual attraction to stuffed animals), and defined furry fandom as “sex, religion and a whole new way of life”. The show Entourage presented a pink bunny fursuit as a sexual prop, and in CSI-episode Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas, furries are portrayed as fetishists mainly in it for the “yiff” – furry porn or sex.
pod, n. A podcast
The Guardian, 21 December 2016:
The daddy of British podcasting is beloved for good reason. His pod is laced with the same creativity and nerdy attention to detail as everything he has ever done.
pod, n.
Steve Raikow, 29 November 2015:
New tech jargon spotted in the wild: Pod, noun, a podcast episode. Ex: "Today's pod is brought to you by squarespace." #jargonwatch #ugh
post-factual democracy, n.
Nicholas Barrett, Financial Times, 26 June 2016:
Third, we now appear to live in a post-factual democracy. When Michael Gove, the pro-Brexit justice secretary, was told by Faisal Islam of Sky News in an interview that “the leaders of the US, India, China, Australia, every single one of our allies, the Bank of England, the IFS, IMF, the CBI, five former Nato secretary generals and the chief executive of the NHS” were all against Britain’s exit, the response was remarkable. “I think the people of this country have had enough of experts,” he replied.
pre-fame, v.
Right from the start, with his 2009 breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone, Drake was writing about the problems caused by celebrity. Whether this was an act of imaginative anticipation, or because he had been pre-famed through his role in the popular Canadian teen soap Degrassi: The Next Generation, it is hard to say. But on songs such as The Calm, Drake was already moaning about feeling overstretched and cut off: “Feelin’ so distant from everyone I’ve known / To make everybody happy, I think I would need a clone … All my first dates are interrupted by my fame.”
prestige series, n.
The Guardian, 24 January 2016:
Netflix’s prestige series are all two-season wonders: Jessica Jones, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, even globetrotting period drama Marco Polo, which was critically disliked and quickly forgotten (and cost $90m to build, among other things, 6,000 custom-made historically accurate 13th-century costumes) are booked for two seasons’ worth of viewing.
prestige television, n.
The Guardian, 24 January 2016:
If 11/22/63 succeeds, credit will be partially due its main competitor: Hastings, programming head Ted Sarandos and others at Netflix made prestige television not merely appealing but vital for the internet age. Decades of rising cable subscriptions gave traditional networks the time and budgets to develop modern hits such as Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad and Archer, but also helped drive people into the arms of Netflix.
project crime, n.
The Guardian, 23 January 2016:
Scroll forward to Easter 2015. A break-in at a Hatton Garden security deposit centre. How much stolen? £100m? £200m? Think of a number and double it. But whodunnit? Imaginative theories were rife, as were movie references. A spectacular “project” crime planned in detail is much like a film script, with roughly the same chance of coming off.
prop-tech, n.
The Guardian, 27 February 2016:
He seems happy with how things are going. “We’ve raised a few hundred thousand pounds, and now we’ll build our team. Prop-tech property technology is heating up in a big way.” I ask him if he feels he spends too much time at Second Home. “Well,” he says, “you can’t not go out and have a curry in Brick Lane sometimes.” He shows no sign of being about to do so, however. “You see,” he says, “I’m on a mission, so I’m always at work, and I’m never at work.” I ask what he means. “It’s not work,” he reiterates, slowly and carefully, “because it’s a mission.”
property technology, n.
The Guardian, 27 February 2016:
He seems happy with how things are going. “We’ve raised a few hundred thousand pounds, and now we’ll build our team. Prop-tech (property technology) is heating up in a big way.” I ask him if he feels he spends too much time at Second Home. “Well,” he says, “you can’t not go out and have a curry in Brick Lane sometimes.” He shows no sign of being about to do so, however. “You see,” he says, “I’m on a mission, so I’m always at work, and I’m never at work.” I ask what he means. “It’s not work,” he reiterates, slowly and carefully, “because it’s a mission.”
PSPO, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.
public space intervention, n.
The Guardian, 13 February 2016:
Described as both a “public space intervention” and a “mass trespass”, the protest included a series of speakers defending the rights of urban residents as free-roaming citizens. Among them was comedian Mark Thomas, who attacked the coalition government’s introduction of the Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which allows councils to make illegal activities such as sleeping rough in an attempt to drive homeless people from town or city centres.
punishment pass, n.
The Guardian, 16 September 2016:
When Mark Hodson gets on his bike in the morning, like many cyclists in the UK, he has come to expect a few close calls. Perhaps drivers will whizz past him too close, or someone will even try a ‘punishment pass’.
radioscape, n.
As determined as he is indeterminate, Drake has diffused himself all across the rap and R&B radioscape this past half-decade, maintaining ubiquity not just with the steady stream of his own hit singles, but with innumerable appearances on other people’s songs, ranging from superstars such as Rihanna to rising MCs such as iLoveMakonnen to the ghost of Aaliyah herself. Last year’s collaborations with Future – Where Ya At and Jumpman – have remained staples of US urban radio well into 2016.
rapid unscheduled disassembly, n.
The Guardian, 18 January 2016:
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has experienced another example of “rapid unscheduled disassembly” – which is Musk jargon for “my rocket exploded”.
reacji, n.
One year later, we’ve found that a handful of emoji reactions—or “reacji” as we sometimes say—go a long way in replacing follow-up messages.
retro housebrick handset, n. not a smartphone
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
My disposable camera pics always came back plastered with those oval “Quality Control” stickers. There should be an iPhone app for that. You’re right about boredom – that’s when daydreams happen and creativity germinates. I worry about Generation Smartphone always being “on”. A new survey found that time spent working out of hours on phones and tablets averages 29 days per year – more than most annual holiday allowances. Freckly thesp Eddie Redmayne recently revealed that he’s swapped his smartphone for a retro housebrick handset in a bid to stop constantly checking emails and start living in the moment.
reverse pitch, v.
Some of the key problems have been located while planning The new Central Library. We naturally would like to solve the problems but we also welcome the new ideas to make the new Central Library a great service center for all. This is where the inventors, innovators and start-ups come in. Our ideas and needs were reverse pitched at AiroBot 2016 at Airo Island, Helsinki, April 13-14.2016. Here is all the material which was shown at the event plus some more. There is a budget of max 500.000€ for the purchase of robots.
reverse showrooming
Midwinter Human, 18 December 2016:
I saw 2 people in 2 different bookshops doing "reverse showrooming" yesterday.That's when you show a bookseller an Amazon link on your phone & say "have you got this book?"
RUD, n. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
The Guardian, 16 January 2015:
Private spaceflight company SpaceX has released new pictures of its Falcon 9 rocket attempting to land on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean before undergoing what its chief executive, Elon Musk, euphemistically referred to as “RUD” – that’s “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly”.In other words, it blew up.
save shot, n.
The Guardian cannot confirm a report by the website TMZ, which cited multiple anonymous sources in Moline, that Prince was administered a “save shot”, typically used to counteract the effects of an overdose. The medical examiner’s office said it could take weeks to get results from the autopsy toxicology reports.
scritching, v.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Menagerie Workshop, Dee’s one-woman fursuit empire, caters to the full furry spectra, from hobbyists content with a pair of ears or a tail to lifestylers who go all out with role play like “scritching” (scratching and grooming).
shmup, n.
If any game genre is most synonymous with difficulty, it is the arcade 2D shoot-‘em-up, known today as the shmup. And it is developer Cave that pushes devotees of the form like no other. Which Cave game is the hardest is highly subjective, but in terms of undiluted difficulty, the insect-themed Mushihimesama’s infamous Ultra mode might take it. There’s less of the mechanical intricacy that makes other releases by the studio perhaps as demanding, but through the sheer number of bullets that fill the screen, Mushi Ultra delivers an onslaught that is as bewildering to watch as it is demeaning to play.
silver traveller market, n.
The Guardian, 20 February 2016:
While children at university are most likely to experience the rise of the genervacation, those in their late 20s and even early 30s are benefiting from the trend, which experts say has caught holiday companies by surprise. Many travel firms had believed that much of their future growth would come from the “silver traveller market” – parents holidaying together once their children had flown the nest.
slab-book, n. a 2-in-1 detachable, 2-in-1 PC, 2-in-1 tablet, 2-in-1 laptop, laplet, or 2-in-1
The Register, 3 February 2016:
As revealed last month, Microsoft claimed it received reports that cords for the first, second and third generation of the slab-book sold before 15 March could be faulty. It warned this was as a result of them being "wound too tightly, twisted or pinched over an extended period".
smart bra, n.
The Guardian, 05 January 2016:
This year, 3,200 vendors will take over Las Vegas for a week for the technology industry’s pre-eminent trade show, offering the clearest window into a future in which everything, from your washing machine to your bra, has a computer chip. And there really is a vendor pitching a “smart bra”.
smart decline, n.
Right in the heart of Gorton, there is an area of open space on the corner of Mount Road and Matthews Lane which has effectively been returned to nature – the practice sometimes referred to as “smart decline” – as part of a recent local urban regeneration programme. Indeed, there are large unused areas of land across the neighbourhood, which seems odd when Manchester is predicted to experience significant population growth over the next 10 years. One would think that land would be at a premium.
smartie, n. a smartphone
The Register, 25 February 2016:
Around a dozen engineers were set to work on the CAT S60, with the goal of being the first smartphone to incorporate thermal imaging, previously the domain of industrial and military uses. The €649 metal-framed smartie has a dedicated FLIR thermal camera, as well as a 13MP underwater proof camera. The device is waterproofed and drop proofed up to 1.8 metres.
sneakerhead, n.
The global trainer (or sneaker, for the Americans) resale market is estimated to be worth bn. What sends “sneakerheads” – those who collect or trade shoes – into a frenzy is trading in limited edition footwear from major sports brands paired with celebrities such as Eminem and Kanye West. The potential for hobbyists to make money is fuelled by websites such as StockX and K’lekt, whose trading platforms have helped improve liquidity and price transparency in the opaque secondary market.
soft Brexit, n.
Financial Times, 6 November 2016:
Thus a promise to dispense with the European Court of Justice (“hard Brexit”, in the phrase banned in Downing Street) has had to be balanced by a promise to Japanese carmaker Nissan that it will not lose access to the single market (soft Brexit). There are countless such circles to be squared. Then there are the voters. Will they be enthusiastic about Brexit a year from now when sterling’s fall is feeding through into cuts in living standards?
soft brick, n.
Soft bricking might be a more correct term.
A soft brick is a brick that can be fixed via a complicated yet real method. It is opposed to a hard brick (paperweight).
soft bricking, v.
Soft bricking might be a more correct term.
A soft brick is a brick that can be fixed via a complicated yet real method. It is opposed to a hard brick (paperweight).
species identity disorder, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
The parallels with gender identity disorder, upon which the hypothesis was modeled, were striking: much like some transgender individuals report being born the wrong sex, some furries feel a disconnect with their bodies, as if they were stuck in the wrong species. The condition, which Gerbasi et al labeled “species identity disorder”, had a physiological component too, with many reporting experiencing phantom body parts, like tails or wings.
speed listening
The New York Times, 12 December 2016:
With them all offering uncountable hours of addictive programming, how is a listener or viewer supposed to keep up? For some, the answer is speed watching or speed listening — taking in the content at accelerated speeds, sometimes two times as fast as normal.
speed watching
The New York Times, 12 December 2016:
With them all offering uncountable hours of addictive programming, how is a listener or viewer supposed to keep up? For some, the answer is speed watching or speed listening — taking in the content at accelerated speeds, sometimes two times as fast as normal.
Stockwell syndrome, n.
Matthew Ogle, 14 January 2016:
So @jhedelstein just coined "Stockwell Syndrome", for when pieces like this make us unexpectedly homesick for London http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/12/wrong-kind-of-sunlight-delays-southeastern-trains-london
streak, n.
ELSBITCH: Streaks are the MOST important thing on Snapchat. Not just one streak — you need to have multiple.I stopped her right there.
ME: What is a streak?
BROOKE: You don’t know what a streak is? It’s when you send a snap to one of your friends on consecutive days. You have to make sure to respond every day with a snap or you break the streak.
ME: OK. Neat.
sub flagship, n. and adj.
The Register, 22 February 2016:
Sony finally has a response to being left behind by value Chinese rivals. It's revived the Xperia X range with three new models, packing some top-end features alongside Sony’s hallmark design and long battery life. The Xperia X Performance is a metal-backed 5 incher (with Qualcomm 820 Snapdragon inside) and a 23MP main camera. The new X uses the Snapdragon 615 part, while the Xperia XA uses a cheaper 720 pixel display and MediaTek processor. Sony reckons a five minute fast charging top up adds two hours of life to the phones. Prices have yet to be confirmed for the “sub flagships”, which will hit the street in the Summer.
success myopia, n.
While we're defining new clever terms, here is one for Khosla and other very rich and successful people that imagine their experiences are relatable or teachable or expandable rather than the application of hard work and a huge helping of luck. It is called "success myopia."
Success myopia could best be explained by the fact that when talking about the world, those privileged enough to be in a position to pontificate about it will almost always focus on pre-existing successes. And focus on them as if they were foregone conclusions; then seek to explain and emulate them.
surveywall, n.
@Herring1967 annoying when the article you want to read's behind a surveywall but they omit the appropriate response https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfWnvvtXIAAwd-C.jpg
survival sim, n.
The Guardian, 20 September 2016:
Firewatch looks like a survival sim, but what you’re really grappling with is solutitude
sweetheart deal, n.
The Guardian, 22 January 2016:
People will be “sceptical” about what he said looked like a “sweetheart deal”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, adding that HMRC seemed to have settled for a “relatively trivial amount of money.”
syncs, n.
The Guardian, 30 January 2016:
Taylor has been in Slow Club for a decade now, having started in 2006 when she was still at school. She’s currently working on a solo project under the name Self Esteem, while working towards a fourth Slow Club album. Music is her full-time job. Between money coming in from royalties and publishing, merch sales and, crucially, money received from syncs – where their music is used for adverts or TV – Taylor and guitarist Charles Watson are able to pay themselves a monthly salary. It’s not much – you’d earn more working full time in McDonald’s – but it means she can get by.
technological fraud, n. aka mechanical doping, mechanical fraud, motorized doping
CyclingTips, 02 February 2016:
“Our auditors made checks at the start and during the race in the pit and they have established mechanical fraud,” stated UCI coordinator Peter Van den Abeele to Sporza. “For the UCI this the first time that technological fraud is detected and for us this is a downer.
Techxit, n.
One UK tech firm has told The Register it could be forced to leave the country if Britain votes to leave the European Union on June 23 – a Techxit, if you will.
terroristiness, n.
Ars Technica UK, 16 February 2016:
Given the complete set of metadata, SKYNET pieces together people's typical daily routines—who travels together, have shared contacts, stay overnight with friends, visit other countries, or move permanently. Overall, the slides indicate, the NSA machine learning algorithm uses more than 80 different properties to rate people on their terroristiness.
Texit, n.
'Why not Texit?': Texas nationalists look to the Brexit vote for inspiration
the human ellipse, n.
The Guardian, 16 January 2016:
The theory, if counterintuitive, is also pretty compelling. Think about it. It’s all very well keeping one side of the escalator clear for people in a rush, but in stations with long, steep walkways, only a small proportion are likely to be willing to climb. In lots of places, with short escalators or minimal congestion, this doesn’t much matter. But a 2002 study of escalator capacity on the Underground found that on machines such as those at Holborn, with a vertical height of 24 metres, only 40% would even contemplate it. By encouraging their preference, TfL effectively halves the capacity of the escalator in question, and creates significantly more crowding below, slowing everyone down. When you allow for the typical demands for a halo of personal space that persist in even the most disinhibited of commuters – a phenomenon described by crowd control guru Dr John J Fruin as “the human ellipse”, which means that they are largely unwilling to stand with someone directly adjacent to them or on the first step in front or behind - the theoretical capacity of the escalator halves again. Surely it was worth trying to haul back a bit of that wasted space.
thunderstorm asthma, n.
The Guardian, 24 November 2016:
Clarence Leo, a father-of two from Noble Park, Apollo Papadopoulos, 35, Hope Carnevali, 20, and year-12 student Omar Moujalled all died following asthma attacks believed to have been triggered by the weather, a rare event described as “thunderstorm asthma”.
un-grandfather, v.
The main reasons for the lack of membership growth is the company’s plan to un-grandfather members from their old plans, which cost .99 a month, Netflix explained. The price hike was announced in 2014, but the company promised members that they could keep their old rate for two more years. In May of this year, some of the members on the old plan were notified that their prices were about to go up. The members are usually notified 30 days before the cost of their plan goes up.
unreality rap, n.
From Clipse to TI, the trap was rap’s reigning metaphor during the first decade of the 21st century, a reference to the place where drugs are sold but also the idea of that life as a dead end (along with the related idea of luring and enslaving the clientele, mostly members of the dealer’s own race, class, community). In Drake’s decade, the 2010s, fame itself – the escape-route alternative to crime pursued by gangsta rappers – has become a trap of its own. The godfathers of gangsta, NWA talked about “reality rap”; Drake’s self-invented genre is unreality rap, or perhaps hyper-reality rap. Both the mise-en-scène and the topics of his songs – penthouse suites, after-show parties, VIP rooms, award shows, inter-celebrity dating, internet gossip, the proliferation of the public self as an image and a meme – are remote from the world most of us inhabit. We gawp at it from the outside. Drake’s art is all about achieving access to this hyper-real world – a realm of front, rumour, bravado, optics, public relations – and then bemoaning how unreal it feels to live inside it. The glittering insubstantiality of the music – which resembles Harold Budd, Aphex Twin and Radiohead circa Kid A as much as Timbaland, the Weeknd or DJ Mustard – is the perfect aural match for the mirrored maze of modern celebreality. The airless sound evokes the sealed vacuum of loneliness-at-the-top.
village-wear, n.
How much do aesthetics matter to an Olympic team? “Well, they matter a huge amount to the athletes themselves,” says McCartney. “Athletes dedicate their entire lives to their bodies. Their bodies are literally their temples. So of course they are proud of them and want to celebrate them. And if it’s important to them, then it matters, right?” This means delivering a perfect silhouette – “for instance, the women’s podium jackets are belted this time around; and I’ll put extra ribbing for shape” and a high style level in the more casual ‘village-wear’. Women’s sweatshirts come cropped to the waist, in keeping with current athleisure trends. Grey marl jersey – a timeless classic of sportswear-meets- weekend-casual – features in racer-back cool-down vests and hoodies with red drawstrings. Backstage after the launch, an off-duty Jessica Ennis sported a white neoprene sweatshirt with a coat of arms broken up by bold GB capital letters.
volcel, n.
The Guardian, 15 November 2016:
I know about the “men going their own way” movement, which is based around the idea that men should avoid any sort of romantic or sexual relationship with women. I’m aware of “traditional marriage” advocates, who often argue that you should aim to marry a very young woman as she’s likely to be easier to control. I also learned the difference between an “incel” who is involuntarily celibate, and a “volcel” who makes a deliberate choice to avoid sexual activity, and sometimes also masturbation, often in the belief that ejaculation depletes their testosterone and saps them of masculine power.
vote brigading, n.
Second, we found evidence of vote brigading, something we'd disqualify others for. I don't believe that Maciej organized a voting ring (actually I don't believe he'd give it a second's thought), but when we dug into the data we found that the votes for Pinboard look dramatically different from the votes for the other startups. I presume this is the effect of Pinboard's (deservedly) large audience being asked to promote the post, e.g. at https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/727255170594131968 and https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/719599297604390912. We didn't know about those links earlier; we only found out about them from user complaints after the runoff was posted. But we would and did disqualify people for soliciting votes on a small scale, so it wouldn't be right to allow soliciting them on a large one.
walking sim, n.
The Guardian, 20 September 2016:
Now, of course, we recognise Dear Esther as one of the originators in a new sub-genre of games, often termed walking sims. Subsequent titles such as Gone Home, Firewatch and the Stanley Parable have taken the premise of a minimalist interactive experience, and pushed it in new directions, though the fundaments are often the same: no puzzles, no enemies, just story, sound and movement. Newcomers like The Grave and Niten promise to take things further.
walking simulator, n.
Austin Chronicle, 12 February 2016:
Abandoning the idea of running, jumping, and shooting has opened up the world of gaming to relatively new genres like empathy games (see That Dragon, Cancer, and Depression Quest) and "walking simulators" (Proteus, Gone Home). Some designers have gone one step further by reconfiguring or tossing aside the notion of playing. Here are a few local examples of powerful, but minimally interactive, artworks.
well-actually, v
This last is not too terrible, as jargon failures go. There is a worse kind of jargon failure I would like to contrast with “bug”. There the problem, if there is a problem, is that entomologists use the common term “bug” much more restrictively than one expects. An entomologist will well-actually you to explain that a millipede is not actually a bug, but we are used to technicians using technical terms in more restrictive ways than we expect. At least you can feel fairly confident that if you ask for examples of bugs (“true bugs”, in the jargon) that they will all be what you will consider bugs, and the entomologist will not proceed to rattle off a list that includes bats, lobsters, potatoes, or the Trans-Siberian Railroad. This is an acceptable state of affairs.
whataboutery, n.
The Guardian also blocked comments that would otherwise disrupt or derail the debate: “whataboutery” of various kinds, or remarks that are clearly off-topic. While not abusive in themselves, such comments serve to make a constructive debate impossible, and show a lack of respect to the journalist and to other commenters in the thread.
whinge-boast, v.
It is a tribute to his powers of invention, his strange and grotesque genius, that Drake has so far managed to find so many compelling variations on such a restricted set of themes: the dream that turns out not to be as dreamy as you had expected; feeling alone even in the midst of an entourage and a wild party; complaints, already fairly familiar in rap, about how money changes everything and creates more problems than its absence. Haters and gold-diggers were long established in rap as inevitable accoutrements of fame about which you could whinge-boast (hip-hop’s equivalent of the humble-brag). But Drake went the next step and talked about the hollow-inside feeling that came with conquering the throne and acquiring all the trophies. As he croons in All Me, “Got everything, I got everything / I cannot complain, I cannot” – but still, still, he complains: about feeing empty, feeling numb. Picking up on pointers left by Kanye West on 808s & Heartbreak, but pushing further ahead, Drake made having a spiritual void into rap’s new status symbol. Morose and maudlin, not Maybach and Margiela, became the mark of megastardom.
whitelash, n.
But there's another side to this. People have talked about a miracle. I'm hearing about a nightmare. It's hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us. You tell your kids: 'Don't be a bully'. You tell your kids: 'Don't be a bigot'. You tell your kids: 'Do your homework and be prepared'. And then you have this outcome and you have people putting children to bed tonight and they're afraid of breakfast. They're afraid of: 'How do I explain this to my children?' I have Muslim friends who are texting me tonight saying: 'Shall I leave the country?' I have families of immigrants that are terrified tonight. This was many things. This was a rebellion against the elites. True, it was a complete reinvention of politics and polls, it's true.But it was also something else. We've talked about race... I mean: we have talked about everything but race tonight. We have talked about income, we've talked about class, we've talked about region. We haven't talked about race. This was a whitelash. This was a whitelash against a changing country. It was a whitelash against a black president in part, and that's the part where the pain comes.
And Donald Trump has a responsibility tonight to come out and reassure people that he is going to be the president of all the people who he insulted and offended and brushed aside. Yeah. When you say you want to take your country back, you got a lot of people who feel we're not represented well either. But we don't want to feel that someone has been elected by throwing away some of us, to appeal more deeply to others. This is a deeply painful moment tonight. I know it's not just about race, there's more going on than that. But race is here too and we got to talk about it.
Wikipedia troll, n.
Five types of troll were found: the “blame the US conspiracy trolls”; the “bikini trolls” (adorned with images of young women who would gently ask targets to rethink their views); “aggressive trolls” determined to drive people off the web; “Wikipedia trolls” working to edit blogs and web pages to Russia’s advantage; and “attachment trolls”, who would post link after link to articles and videos from Russian news platforms.
yiff, n.
The Guardian, 4 February 2016:
Stereotyped as less innocent than they look by mainstream media, furries tend to get a bad rap. A 2001 Vanity Fair article brought up both bestiality and plushophilia (sexual attraction to stuffed animals), and defined furry fandom as “sex, religion and a whole new way of life”. The show Entourage presented a pink bunny fursuit as a sexual prop, and in CSI-episode Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas, furries are portrayed as fetishists mainly in it for the “yiff” – furry porn or sex.
You’re my person, phrase
Recently, a dear friend announced her engagement. We toasted and feted and made happy noises about her soon-to-be-husband’s fantastic choice in a mate. Later, though, she took me aside, hushed and confidential. “I don’t want you to feel hurt by this,” she said. “You’re my best friend, my person.” I watched her in fear; what was she about to tell me? “I’m not going to have any bridesmaids,” she finally concluded, forehead knit, prepared for me to break. Impending weddings can put a totally reasonable person on edge, sometimes.I smiled and hugged her and took a big swig of whatever I happened to be drinking, then breathed my own sigh of relief. “You’re my person too,” I said. “And this is the best present you could give me.”
zombie killer, n.
Earlier this year a 17-year-old was convicted of manslaughter and jailed after teenage student Stefan Appleton was stabbed to death with a “zombie killer” knife in north London in June 2015.
zombie killer knives, n.
“Zombie killer knives glamorise violence and cause devastating damage – they have no place whatsoever in our society.”
zombie knives, n.
Morris Bright, of the Local Government Association (LGA), said: “Zombie knives have only one purpose – to threaten, injure or kill someone – and this ban, which the LGA has called for, will help reduce the number of lethal blades in society and stop online retailers unwittingly fuelling criminal activity which can lead to tragedy.
hugovk commented on the word socialise
socialise, v. to email something around
The Guardian, 26 February 2016:
March 1, 2016