Approximeeting

 Arranging a rough time or place to meet, then sorting out details on the fly via mobile phone.

Source: 
Viewpoint: Why do tech neologisms make people angry?

Glossary of the Royal Wedding

Learn some fun royal wedding words!

Flower girl: the 3-year-old bridesmaid Grace van Cutsem, covering her ears while Britain's Prince William kisses his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

Briet: A diet that a bride uses to lose weight before her wedding day. [Bridal + diet.]
Wedmin: Portmanteau term reportedly being used by Prince Harry to describe his royal wedding planning. [Wedding + Admin.]

Fascinator: A fascinator is a headpiece, a style of millinery. The word originally referred to a fine, lacy head covering akin to a shawl and made from wool or lace. Read more>>

Golden ticket: invitations sent out to 100 individuals who were randomly selected from the public to enjoy the ceremony alongside Prince William and Kate Middleton’s guests.

Charitable Gift Fund: Instead of sending gifts, Kate Middleton and Prince William have asked well-wishers to contribute to one of five causes through Prince William’s Foundation—the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Henry. These five causes have been specifically chosen by Prince William and Kate themselves, which include helping children fulfil their potential, supporting individuals who are enlisted in the services, positively changing lives through arts and sports, providing help and care at home, and supporting the wildlife conservation effort.

Royal wedding carriage: After the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the newlywed couple will travel in the 109-year-old red and gold State Landau along Processional Route to Buckingham Palace.

Royal Pizza: the Kentucky-based pizza chain Papa John's has created an over-the-top pizza portrait of the royal couple. Papa John's pizza has teamed with a British food artist to create a pizza bearing the images of Prince William and fiancée Kate Middleton.
The toppings of the mosaic pizza feature the image of Kate Middleton with a veil made from mushrooms and a dress comprised of cheese. The pizza also features Prince William with a suit made from salami and peppers to commemorate the April 29 royal wedding.

Royal stamp: a commemorative, featuring Prince William and Kate’s official engagement portraits.

Source:

TermWiki

Schott's Vocab

Terminologiaetc.

Precariat

People whose lives are precarious because they have little or no job security. Blend of "Precarious" + "proletariat".


Source: WordSpy

Thank You Economy

A customer-focused company culture.

Gary Vaynerchuk wrote on Entrepreneur.com:

We're living in what I like to call the "Thank You Economy", because only the companies that can figure out how to mind their manners in a very old-fashioned way -- and do it authentically -- are going to have a prayer of competing.

Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners. This means taking the long view and avoiding short-term benchmarks to gauge progress. It means allowing the personality, heart and soul of the people who run all levels of the business to show. And doing their utmost to shape word of mouth by treating each customer as though he or she were the most important customer in the world.

In short, business leaders are going to have to relearn the ethics and skills our great-grandparents' generation used in building their own businesses and took for granted.

Source: Entrepreneur.com

Glocalization

The tailoring of globally produced products to make them suitable to local tastes and needs.

Glocalization often involves an international corporation tailoring their product to local tastes rather than trying to sell a ‘one size fits all’ version of their product in many markets.

Source:dictionaryblog.cambridge.org

She-covery

A term that similarly indicates that women have been doing better at getting jobs than men since the economy began to improve.

But why are women faring so much better than men?

It's due in large part to a few key industries dominated by one or the other of the sexes doing well or poorly.

Source: The Atlantic

See also:

Mancession

Womenomics

Keystroke revolution

A rioting demonstration spreading via the Internet and social fora.

It is represented through the image of hands typing on a keyboard getting connected at global level. In particular, this form can be referred to the uprisings which have been bursting out throughout Middle East and Northern African countries since the beginning of 2011.

Espressione che indica una rivoluzione che si è propagata attraverso la Rete e i social forum ove si è sfruttata l’immagine delle mani che operano sulla tastiera del computer per rendere possibile la connessione a livello globale. Tale formula espressiva può riferirsi, nello specifico, alla serie di movimenti di rivolta che dall’inizio dell’anno hanno interessato il Medio Oriente e il Nord Africa.

Source: Englishfor

Internel Kill Switch

Proposal to give President of the United States the authority to turn off Internet access or Web sites in a "cybersecurity emergency".

Source: CNet.com

See also:Facebookistan

Twitter Revolution

The online social media have become so important in linking and mobilising activists that the uprising in Tunisia has gained the alternative title of Twitter Revolution.

The name was earlier given to the events in Moldova and Iran in 2009 and all three have also been described as Facebook revolutions, though the name hasn’t stuck in the same way. It’s too early to say which, if any of them, will be identified in the history books as the Twitter Revolution.

Source: Word Wide Words

"I wouldn't know a twitter from a tweeter, but apparently it is very important". H.Clinton

Read also:

#twitterrevolution reforming Egypt in 140 characters?,by Dennis Baron, The Web of Language

Facebookistan

Nile Fever

Mass protests of Egyptian workers and youth in Cairo demanding democratic rights and decent living standards.

Source: WSWS


Read also:"How the War of Words Was Won in Cairo" by Ben Zimmer, NYTimes

How do you tell a dictator to get lost?
The answer, in Egypt, was with
poetry, tech lingo, hieroglyphics and more.

Jasmine Revolution

Referred to the popular uprising in Tunisia that toppled the regime of President Ben Ali.

In January 2011, a new term was added to the lexicon of politics and insurrection: Jasmine Revolution, referring to the popular uprising in Tunisia that toppled the regime of President Ben Ali. This is the most recent example of what have since 2005 been referred to as colour revolutions, which originally referred specifically to the changes of government in authoritarian former Soviet-bloc countries.

Source: World Wide Words

Spousonomics

The application of economics to explore and improve relationships.

Writing for The Daily Beast, Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson offered the following advice for improving one’s sex life – “Make it affordable”:

"Let’s explain. All that stuff about foreplay and romance? That stuff takes time and energy. And if it’s one thing today’s couples don’t have in excess it’s time and energy. We just wrote a book about this very topic. It’s called Spousonomics, and it looks at ways economics can help people improve their
relationships."

Source:

"How Can Economics Improve a Marriage? Ask the Authors of Spousonomics", by Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics, NYTimes

The Daily Beast

Schott's Vocab

New buzzwords! Sheeple, buzzkill, cheeseball

Automagically: Automatically in a way that seems magical.

Bargainous: Costing less than expected.

Big media: Primary mass communication sources, e.g., TV and the press.

Buzzkil: Person or thing that has a depressing effect.

Carbon credit: Permit allowing a certain amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

Carbon offsetting: Counteraction of CO2 emissions with a corresponding reduction.

Catastrophize: To present a situation as worse than it is.

Cheeseball: Lacking taste or style.

Chillax: To calm down and relax.

Eggcorn: Logical swap of words with similar sounds (from "egg corn" for "acorn").

Flyover states: Central regions of the U.S.

Frenemy: Friend with whom one has frequent conflict.

Gal pal: Female friend.

Green audit: Analysis of a business' environmental impact.

Green-collar: Of or relating to workers in the environmentalist business sector.

Hater: Negative person.

Homeshoring: Moving jobs to employees' homes (from "offshoring").

Hypermiling: Altering a car to maximize its fuel economy.

Locavore: One who primarily eats locally grown food.

Meme: Image, video or phrase passed electronically on the Internet.

Microblog: To post very short entries on a blog.

Overleveraged: Having taken on too much debt.

Own: To utterly defeat or humiliate.

Paywall: Arrangement whereby website access is restricted to paying users only.

Pimp: To make something more showy or impressive.

Rock: To do something in a confident, flamboyant way.

Sheeple: Unquestioning followers (from "sheep" + "people").

Social media: Websites and applications used for social networking.

Soft skills: Attributes that enable someone to interact harmoniously with others.

Toxic debt: Debt that has a high risk of default.

Truthiness: Quality of seeming true.

Turducken: Roast of a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey.

Webisode: Episode or short film made for viewing online.

Zombie bank: Insolvent bank that survives through government support.


Sources: Oxford Dictionary of English; New American Oxford Dictionary; Oxford English Dictionary; Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Sputnik moment

A Sputnik moment is a point where people realise that they are threatened of challenged and have to redouble their efforts to catch up.

Obama followed his Energy Secretary Steven Chu in declaring that the United States stands at a new "Sputnik moment" in the development of such technologies as clean energy and high-speed rail. The idea has been percolating for several years now: Robert J. Samuelson of Newsweek and Mort Zuckerman of U.S. News & World Report both used the expression in 2005. It's unclear whether Americans listening to Obama will be moved by the historical reference, particularly those too young to appreciate the threat that the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite represented during the Cold War era. Obama continued the aeronautical allusions by referring to new energy innovation projects as the "Apollo projects of our time."

Sources: Using English

"Commander in Speak: Parsing Obama's Speech", CBSNews

"Choice Words from the State of the Union", Visual Thesaurus

Blue Monday

A Monday regarded as a depressing workday in contrast to the pleasant relaxation of the weekend.



Source: Dictionary.com

Nonversation

Conversation that seems meaningless or without logic.

Source: Merriam Webster

Cyberchondriac

One who imagines physical ailments after reading about them on the Internet.

Source: Merriam Webster

Downshifting

The act of reducing one's standard of living for an improved quality of life. Downshifting assumes a tradeoff between standard of living, such as level of wealth, and quality of life, which relates to well-being. People who downshift are looking to improve their personal lives. These changes could take the form of more spare time, a reduced workload or a lower stress level. To achieve these goals, the person must be willing to give up his or her current standard of living and look to reduce the cost of living. For example, someone may attempt to downshift by reducing monthly expenses, moving to a smaller house or selling unnecessary possessions.

Source: Investopedia

“Semplicità volontaria” è il neologismo che definisce quello che, principalmente nel mondo anglosassone, viene chiamato all’interno del mondo del lavoro la scelta da parte di diverse figure di lavoratori – particolarmente professionisti – di giungere ad una libera, volontaria e consapevole autoriduzione del salario bilanciata da un minore impegno in termini di ore dedicate alle attività professionali, in maniera tale da godere di maggiore tempo libero (famiglia, ozioso relax, hobbystica, ecc.).

Source: Noi Risparmio

Condomania

Term used to describe the media frenzy that followed Pope Benedict XVI’s recent comments on condom use.

Commenting in The National Post on Pope Benedict XVI’s much-discussed remarks on condom use, Charles Lewis wrote:

Author and scholar George Weigel, who coined the term “condomania,” did what many other Catholic intellectuals did this past week: helped to try to clarify what the Pope “really” meant. Mr. Weigel, one of the great Catholic writers, made three main points: the teachings on sexual morality “has not changed and it will not change because it cannot be changed,” not all papal statements carry the same weight, and “no pope with his wits about him would use the vehicle of an interview with a journalist to discuss a new initiative, lay out a pastoral program, or explicate a development of doctrine.”

published on: Schott's Vocab

Read also:

Vatican Roulette

Happiness Index

The British government is set to measure the country's "happiness" in an effort to give a fuller picture of how the nation is performing.

David Cameron, the prime minister, who had previously called for "general well-being" to be assessed alongside traditional economic indicators, outlined some of the plans on Thursday, sparking criticism from some quarters.

Source: Aljazeera

Il Pil, il prodotto interno lordo, è l’unico indicatore che gli stati utilizzano per la contabilità nazionale. La ricchezza delle nazioni si misura calcolando solo tutte le attività dove c’è scambio di danaro. Tutto il resto non esiste...

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