The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, A Popular Guide to Words in the News - Sara Tulloch
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Product details
Title: The Oxford Dictionary of New Words
Sub Title: A Popular Guide to Words in the News
Author: Sara Tulloch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1991
Number of pages: 322
ISBN: 9780198691709
Synopsis: What does mirror-shades group mean? (Is it a solar power array, a school of science fiction, a slang word for corporate raiders?) Who first coined the word factoid? When and where does the triple witching hour occur? What do the acronyms DINK and NIMBY stand for? On what kid's show wasthe cry Cowabunga first heard? Why is the term acupressure something of a misnomer? In The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, Sara Tulloch examines over two thousand new words and phrases that have become part of our daily lives in the last decade, in 750 articles that provide pronunciation, definition, etymology, informal history, and sample sentences. Drawing words frompolitics, the environmental movement, computers and technology, business, sports, entertainment, and many other areas, Tulloch goes beyond the usual informative but narrow dictionary entry to offer readers a rich history of the recent changes not only in our language but in our culture as well. Justskimming the headwords is like fast-forwarding through the eighties: bailout, cocooning, deniability, the disappeared, glasnost, lambada, safe sex, spin doctor, fun run, insider trading, genetic fingerprinting, thirtysomething, designer water, liposuction, Cablevision, gentrification, intifada, andDINK (Double Income, No Kids). And the histories that Tulloch provides are so interesting that even if you know the meaning of a word you will find the article fascinating. For instance, readers discover that the expression Cowabunga, popularized most recently by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dates back to the old Howdy Doody Show of the '50s; that couch potato was coined by Californian Tom Iacino (who also commends television-watching as transcendental vegetation) and that the word factoid was coined by Norman Mailer in his book Marilyn; that the name of the Black South Africanparty Inkatha comes from a Zulu word for a sacred head-ring believed to ensure solidarity; that the cellular in cellular phone refers to the small geographic sections or cells into which each operating area is divided; that mouse has been a computer term since 1965 and mousse has gonefrom dessert to hair styling product to the frothy oil-and-seawater mixture left behind oil spills; and that Lenin used the term glasnost to mean freedom of information half a century before Gorbachev did. Here then is a resource that is both useful and intriguing, the first place to turn when faced with such new words and phrases as acyclovir, magnetic resonance imaging, Alar or computer footprint, as well as a browser's delight, a goldmine of language for word lovers everywhere.
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