What’s in a word?
Posted: Friday 25 November, 2011
Keredy Andrews
Working in the communications sphere and having a literature degree, it’s no surprise that I’m a fan of words so when the Oxford English Dictionary announced its word of the year this week, I was keen to write this post. ‘Squeezed middle’ has been chosen as the word that has caught the flavour of 2011, but yes, we can all see that it’s two words and it should be defined as a phrase; frankly, the OED should know better (ahem).
It’s not a ‘word’ that I would have chosen and I’m not sure it has been used all that much to win its accolade. As neologisms go, it’s not as catchy or rooted in our language as, for example, one of the runners-up ‘hacktivism’ (gaining unauthorised access to files in order to further social or political ends) or a Punch office favourite, ‘totes’ (totally). Of course, an abbreviation (or abbreve) such as totes doesn’t sum up the year but ‘squeezed middle’ is rather dull and confusing, as John Humphrys pointed out to Ed Miliband when the phrase was coined live on air on Radio 4’s Today Programme – “I have no idea what you mean by squeezed middle”.
In case you care, Miliband responded by defining it as the “broad middle class in this country who find themselves financially hard pressed” but it was actually Bill Clinton who first talked about hard pressed working families being squeezed in the middle; not such an original concept after all, huh Ed, you just deleted ‘in the’ (one step away from an Essex abbreve?).
Although words are arbitrary, (meaning there is nothing laptoppy about a laptop, words are just signifiers) they are also precise, precious, pretty and pleasing. If they weren’t we wouldn’t agonise over which particular one suits the signified object or concept – I should know, I’m doing exactly this as I write – and we wouldn’t worry so much about signifying the wrong message, which is essence of PR.
I’m very lucky to love what I do and be surrounded by others who share my passion for words. Language is often a talking point in the office and urban dictionary is only ever a click away. Out of the cited runners-up we think ‘phone hacking’ resonates better with the past year but it’s also not very cheery; ‘bunga bunga’ however, now there’s a new phrase that just makes you smirk if not a full on smile. Here are some of our own words of the year that make us grin and are more than likely completely overused! We’d love to hear some of yours via Twitter, Facebook or Google+.
Emilie – ‘bossing’ (in control of a situation) – ‘I’m going to boss that press release pitch’
George – ‘reem’ (gorgeous/awesome) – ‘That QR code is reem’
Alex – ‘shens’ (shenanigans) – ‘I’m up for some shens this weekend’
Kirsty – ‘rowdy’ (crazy) – ‘You’re going out on a work night? Rowdy!’
Jess – ‘jels’ (jealous) – ‘David Hasselhoff’s following you? Well jels!’
