WordLo

Sneakernet is a term used to describe the physical transfer of electronic information, especially computer files.
The name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to sneakers, as this way of moving information relies on a courier and removable media such as USB drive and compact discs.




Source: Osama bin Laden’s use of Technology, GeekwithLaptop

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 Wil…

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


Source: WordSpy

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

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 max…

E-mail I send to myself to remind me to do things.


Source: BBC, "10 of your favourite anti-tech words"

A buzzword that gained traction in 2009, Obamacare became even more pervasive in 2010. “We must repeal Obamacare” became the mantra heard in race after race in the mid-term elections. CNSNews.com asked members of Congress if they would pledge to repeal the president’s health-care reform law, reporting on their answers.

Source: CNSNews

The spending power of the older generation.

Reporting for McClatchy Newspapers, Anita Creamer highlighted a term associated with grandparents’ growing economic clout. Interviewing grandmother Mary Hopp about her gift-giving, Creamer wrote:
Her contributions to the so-called “grandparent economy” are carefully considered yet generous – a prime example of how America’s 70 million grandparents divvied up the $52 billion they spent on their grandkids in 2009, according to a study that was commissioned by Grandparents.com.

Source: Schott's Vocab

We are over-stretching the language by using "friend" as a verb when we talk about "friending" and "unfriending" someone on Facebook. Since friends on Facebook are not real friends in the usual sense, we probably need a word distinct from the normal word, "befriend," for referring to Facebook friends. But we do have other words for this process, words like "add to" and "block from."
Source: CNN

Every year brings a slew of new compounds and 2010 was no exception.

A "double-dip" recession was on everyone's minds as the government tried to avoid one by funding "shovel-ready" projects, projects that were past the planning phase.

The stand-out borrowed word this year was "vuvuzela" or simply "vuvu," the two-foot long "stadium horn" tooted by most of the fans at the South African World Cup match this year. English borrows most of its words from European languages, so the nerve-wracking honking of these horns at the World Cup match had to make a great impression to be picked up by English.

Source: CNN

Coined by Lewis Carroll, the term "portmanteau word" is one that carries two words inside itself.

When we speak, we go to our mental dictionaries for the right words. If we find two words with similar meanings or pronunciations, we have to make a split-second choice of which to use. President George W. Bush's mind once found itself having to choose between "miscalculated" and "underestimated" as he spoke, but failed to reach a decision in time, so he uttered "misunderestimated".

Sarah Palin's famous portmanteau "refudiate" is similar. "Refudiate" is a speech error that many others before her have made by blending "refute" and "repudiate." That it has been around for ages but has yet to make it into a dictionary tells us that it is a speech error we should stop discussing and let pass for what it is: a funny but erroneous portmanteau.

Source: CNN

Each year the English language takes a fresh beating, but in 2010 it was intensified more than ever by the widening reach and quickening pace of the internet.

New words and constructions like "Obamacare," "WikiLeaks," "lamestream," "shovel-ready," "sexting," and many others like them were uttered or typed and in minutes spread across the globe.

But I think we need not worry too much about the new words entering or trying to enter the language. Most of them are what linguists call "nonce" words, words that someone dreams up for the nonce, which is to say, for a particular occasion. A nonce word usually vanishes as soon as the occasion that motivated its creation passes.
For example? Even though the East was buried under snow over the holidays, few invoked "snowmageddon," the off-the-cuff creation from last winter's blizzard that was created by smushing (smashing into a mush) the two words "snow" and "…

Another name for the rhythm method of birth control.

Called so because it is the only form of contraception endorsed by the Catholic Church.

"Well, the Pope says condoms are out, and the pill is born of the fires of Hell. So get out the calendar, baby, it's time for Vatican roulette."

Source: Urban Dictionary

See also: Condomania

The expression, a neologism coined by analogy with the term Armageddon, has been used by President Obama to call the snow storm that shut down Washington at the beginning of February. With the same meaning it is possible to find the term “snowpocalypse”.
L’espressione, neologismo coniato per analogia con il termine Armageddon, è stata utilizzata dal Presidente Obama per definire la tempesta di neve che si è abbattuta su Washington all’inizio di febbraio. Con lo stesso significato è possibile trovare anche il termine snowpocalypse.
Source: Englishfor

The usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context.
Origin  Mrs. Malaprop, character noted for her misuse of words in R. B. Sheridan's comedy The Rivals (1775) First Known Use: 1849
Source: Merriam-Webster

“A political concept whereby a significant amount of responsibility for the running of a society’s services is devolved to local communities and volunteers.”

The phrase was coined by Prime Minister David Cameron, who said in July: “The big society ... is about liberation – the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street.” David Cameron spells out how his vision of a 'Big Society' could address Britain's problems.
David Cameron's big idea of the campaign is the "big society". This was launched with some fanfare at the end of March at an event in London, and made it into the Conservative manifesto. Three weeks later, it was being buried by Cameron's colleagues, one of whom said, "We need to turn Oliver Letwin's Hegelian dialectic into voter-friendly stuff." (Letwin, chairman of the Conservative Research Department, has a PhD in philosophy.)That shadow minister meant to dismis…

brownstone: a house built or faced with brownish-red sandstoneduke it out: to compete against someone or somethingdweeb: (slang) a person regarded as socially inept or foolish, often on account of being overly studiouslickety split: without delaymojo: personal magnetism, charmpony up: (slang) to pay, money owed or duesledding: (informal) a specific kind of progress towards a goalsuck: (vulgar slang) to be disgustingly disagreeable or offensiveSource: Guardian