Words of the Year, 2008
You can usually tell what kind of year it has been by looking at the new terms and words it generates. The year 2008 has been rich with neologisms that support the New Frugality, the rediscovered zeitgeist of cutting back on consumption. My favorite new term might be “frugalista,” defined by The New Oxford American Dictionary as “a person who leads a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc.”
But the year’s winning word according to The NOAD is the verb “hypermile,” which means “to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and driving techniques.” Hypermilers (the noun form) keep their tires properly inflated, remove roof racks from their vehicles, and turn engines off rather than letting them idle at stoplights. The word even has it’s own website that’s filled with tips that’ll make you feel like a hot-rodding lead foot (”slowly accelerate after stops” and “always know your gas mileage after trips to the pump”). Here in the West, “hypermiling” is sometimes called “EcoDriving.”
A somewhat related term is “staycation,” which is a day trip or vacation taken at or near one’s home.
Other jargon from 2008? How about “moofer” (rhymes with “goofer”), a Mobile Out-Of-Office worker who is basically Dilbert with a blackberry instead of a cubicle. Works as a noun, but I’m not so sure about the verb form (“My employer just moofed me!”).
Then there’s “tweet,” a short message sent via Twitter using a cell phone or other mobile device.
Another newbie is the “topless meeting,” which, while it may conjure up staff meetings at the Playboy Mansion, actually refers to meetings in which electronic devices like laptops, blackberries and mobile phones are verboten.
Thanks to the 2008 Presidential campaign, we now have “hockey mom,” which used to be the winter equivalent of a soccer mom, but now has been conflated with pit bulls, lipstick and Neiman-Marcus shopping sprees.
And of course there’s “toxic debt,” the poorly secured bank loans that were randomly bundled and regifted like a holiday fruitcake. “Toxic debt” is the pre-bailout term. Post-bailout (or, euphemistically, “Post Rescue Package”), we refer to it as “troubled assets.”
Do you have any favorite “new words” from the past year you’d like to share?
Just a little fodder for all you moofing frugalistas out there to tweet to your circle while hypermiling to your staycation.
Posted by Mickey
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