English Rewind - 6 Minute English: New words

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The programme you're about to listen to was first broadcast in September 2010

on the BBC Learning English website.

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And now, on with the show.

This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English dot com.

Hello! I'm Alice and this is 6 Minute English.

I'm joined today by Rob. Hi, Rob.

Hello, Alice.

Today we're talking about some of the new words

which have entered the English language recently.

These are words which have been added

to the Oxford Dictionary of English this year.

There are quite a few, but we thought we'd pick some which you might enjoy using.

But first, a question.

Rob, can you guess how many new words or phrases were added in this latest edition?

Is it 100, 2,000 or 10,000?

Hm, I would think that there are thousands of new words every year,

but not all of them are added to the English dictionary.

Let me have a think about it.

I'll let you know the answer at the end of the programme,

but first let's hear from Catherine Soanes from the Oxford Dictionary of English

talking about how they choose which words will make it into the new edition.

What we can do, we've got software tools

that actually show how words are being used, how widely they're being used.

So it's not just a question of numbers,

it's a question of different places it's being used,

so everywhere from magazines to newspapers to chatrooms.

So the company have software tools which are able to monitor new words,

how and when they are used.

Catherine Soanes says it's not just a question of numbers,

they don't just measure how often a new word is used.

And she uses that phrase again — it's a question of different places.

They also look at the different places where the word is used.

For example, she says in magazines, newspapers and chatrooms.

So a word must be used in a variety of places.

That's right. In order to make it into the dictionary it can't just be 'jargon' —

words which are specific to particular fields of interest.

Many of the new words this year come from social networking.

Here's Catherine Soanes again to explain.

Social networking as well is so huge,

so we're getting words in the dictionary now like 'defriend' or 'unfriend'

which means take somebody off your friend list

on a social networking site such as Facebook.

We're seeing lots of words like that come into the language now.

Rob, have you heard the words 'defriend' or 'unfriend?

Mm, I've never used them myself, but I know what they mean.

If you remove someone from your friend list on social networking sites,

you might 'defriend' them or 'unfriend' them.

It's easy to make a new word just using the prefix 'de-' and 'un-',

but it does sound a bit clumsy!

How about blogging?

Blogging has been in the dictionary for a while, but what about 'microblogging'?

That's a blog which is really small —

it could just be a sentence, a quick video link or an image.

Now, Alice, do you know what a dictionary attack is?

No.

It's an attempt to find out your secret computer password

by trying an enormous number of words which might unlock it.

That sounds nasty!

And so do some of the new words and phrases

which come from talking about the problems in the world's economy.

Can you explain what 'toxic debt' is, Rob?

Well, I'll try!

It's the phrase used to describe a class of assets which were once valuable —

mortgages or financial products — which are now worthless.

Pretty good!

A 'toxic debt' can be worthless

or at least have a reduced value, which is hard to find out.

Here's another one we've heard quite a lot over the last couple of years —

'quantitative easing'.

That's when governments put new money into the national money supply,

to ease pressure on the economy.

Shall we have something more entertaining?

My favourite new word is this one.

Yes, that's probably what the year 2010 will be remembered for —

the hum of the vuvuzela at the Football World Cup in South Africa.

So, Rob, have you thought about the answer to my question

at the beginning of the programme?

How many new words do you think were added to the dictionary this year?

Was it 100, 2,000, or 10,000?

Well, I think 100 is too little and 10,000 is too many,

so I'm going for 2,000.

Well done! It's actually slightly more than 2,000 new words and phrases

in this year's edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Shall we hear some of them again?

Yes, of course.

And here's some of the other language we heard in the programme.

Edition, edition.

Software tools, software tools.

A question of, a question of.

Chatrooms, chatrooms.

Jargon, jargon.

Social networking, social networking.

Defriend, unfriend. Defriend, unfriend.

Microblogging, microblogging.

Dictionary attack, dictionary attack,

Toxic debt, toxic debt,

Quantitative easing, quantitative easing,

Vuvuzela, vuvuzela.

And we've got time to listen to Catherine Soanes

from the Oxford Dictionary of English talking about the 2010 edition again.

What we can do, we've got software tools

that actually show how words are being used, how widely they're being used.

So it's not just a question of numbers,

it's a question of different places it's being used,

so everywhere from magazines to newspapers to chatrooms.

Well, that's all we've got time for today.

Thanks for joining us and see you next time.

— Bye! — Bye!

That was 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English dot com.