Listen to our feature on Modern Manners and Word Up!

New words for old
Is it very cheddar where you are? In case you don't know, that means is it very cold! The English language has always been in a state of evolution. In recent years, more and more words have entered the language, partly due to the increased willingness of lexicographers to include new words in the dictionaries. The language of the street hasn’t ever been standard English, but nowadays many words are making the crossover from street language to the mainstream. So if you want to know what homeshoring means just look in the latest Collins English Dictionary.

That’s politics
Politics and how it’s reported in the news media often throws up new words. Usually these are well known words that the media starts using in a different way to mean something totally new. Recent examples include:

• sexed up - used by the media to mean revising or changing something to aid one’s own purposes.
• ticking the boxes – meaning someone or something that's attractive.
• hoodie - a menacing youth wearing a hooded top, allegedly to avoid being identified by CCTV.
• ICE – as in ‘In Case of Emergency’. Following the London bombings in 2005 a paramedic thought it would be useful if people used the acronym to store an emergency name and number on their mobiles and the idea has since spread across the world and into the dictionaries.

Catchphrases
Lots of new words or different uses of words come from television, especially comedy shows. Catchphrases used on these programmes enter the language. A recent example is from a character from the Little Britain comedy series, whose name, Vicky Pollard, has become synonymous with teenage girls with attitude who are rowdy and disrespectful. Another Little Britain-ism is ‘yeah but, no but’, now heard in response to questions in schools across the UK.

Another recent top comedy show is The Catherine Tate Show which has led to the catchphrase ‘Am I bovvered?’ infecting the country – even people who have never watched the programme know this one!

Magnus and Stella
April 2005