Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Odd Words

As my regular readers will know, I collect examples of strange uses of the English language by Americans, and publish these at the end of every year. I hope that the 2011 list of odd words meets with your approval:

  • Overcast (n): "There will be breaks in the overcast later in the day"
  • Get backlogged (v)
  • Facebook (v): "Facebook us!" (friending is sooo 2010)
  • Beautify (v)
  • Flex (v): Be flexible about
  • Threepeat (v): Repeat something three times
  • Ouster (n): The act of ousting
  • Disserve (v): Do a disservice to
  • Belongingness: Belonging
  • Tanner (adj): More tanned
  • Outreach (v): Reach out
  • Up (v): Increase
  • Impactive/impactful (adj): Having an impact
  • Headquartered (adj)
  • Barefootable (adj): Capable of running barefoot
  • Marriageable (adj): Capable of finding a spouse
  • Credentialled (v): Having credentials
  • Geek (v): I have no idea!!!
  • Bring to justice (usu. pp): Kill
  • Transact (v): Make a transaction
  • Dead end (v): "14 Mile Road dead ends in 1 mile"
  • Monogrammable
  • Install (n)
  • Awarded: Award-winning
  • Stank (n): Stink
  • Stankiest (adj): Smelliest

2 comments:

Tim said...

Most definitely approved. My favourites of this batch: the overcast (must remember that one!), threepeat (along with threepeat and threepeat) and credentialled. Will have to find out how to use geek as a verb though! Now over to your mum...

Anonymous said...

....and then Mum said: I always love these lists and watch carefully which of these expressions I find in either Tom's or Anna's speech patterns. They are both still remarkably un-geeked, believe me, even if I have to threepeat it.

Living in a January overcast now and try to keep up with the New World.