More new words in contemporary English

More new words in contemporary English

Are you keen on learning new contemporary English words? Here is another bunch for you.

1. Amazonisation – It is a term that describes the way people’s expectations regarding customer service have been raised because they are getting used to the kind of fast, effective customer service that online retailers like Amazon offer.

2. A dashcam – It is a miniature camera that you attach to the dashboard of your car to record any examples of dangerous or illegal driving by other motorists, especially if you want being implicated in a court case or insurance claim, and feel it would be useful to have recorded evidence of what really happened.

3.Totes = totally, amaze = amazing, atrosh = atrocious – These are examples of youth speak, where words are cut short, and an ’s’ is sometimes added.

4.YOLO = you only live once, TMI = too much information, FOMO = fear of missing out – All of these words started as text/SMS acronyms, but have filtered into speech, especially the first two, which are exclamations. FOMO refers to a feeling of anxiety we might get if we see other people having more fun than us, for example on social media.

5.Full nest syndrome – It’s what happens to middle-aged parents when their kids, having moved out of the family home e.g. to go to university, eventually move back in because they can’t afford to live independently in these times of economic crisis. It’s also called ’the boomerang effect’.

6. Snapchat and Vine – They are video messaging applications which enable users to take photos, record videos, add text and drawings and send them to a controlled list of recipients.

7. Kipper – The original meaning of kipper is smoked herring. The new meaning attached to it is: a supporter of the UKIP party. UKIP is the UK Independence Party: it stands for extreme nationalism, getting Britain out of the EU and drastically limiting immigration. Its leader is Nigel Farage. 12.6 % of the electorate voted for UKIP in the May General Election, but the party only won one seat, thanks to the ’first past the post system’.

8. Zero-hour contracts or casual contracts allow employers to hire staff with no guarantee of work. They mean that employees work only when they are needed by employers, oftenat short notice. Their pay depends on how many hours they work.

9.Vaping – It is smoking an e-cigarette (it is called so because of the vapour it gives off). It has gradually taken off in the UK over the last two years or so, and vaping fluid in different flavours is on sale in most newsagents, but there have been recent worries about the chargers presenting a fire risk.

10. Chelsea tractor – Any expensive 4×4 (eg. a Range Rover) that is driven in an urban environment as a status symbol (typically for taking the kids to school) and will never be driven off-road.   

Some words from the definitions of the words above are selected for you. Can you remember the word?

1. smoked herring, UKIP, extreme nationalism, first past the post system

2. fast customer service, raised expectations, online retailers

3. casual contracts, at short notice, no guarantee of work

4. to record, dashboard, court case, evidence

5. smoking, vapour, newsagents, charger

6. youth speak, to cut short, ’s’ added

7. Range Rover, urban environment, status symbol, off-road

8. acronym, exclamation, SMS, to filter into

9. messaging, applications, recipients, photos, videos

10. to move back, can’t afford to, independently, economic crisis

Key:

1. Kipper

2. Amazonisation

3. zero-hour contract

4. dashcam

5. vaping

6. totes, amaze, atrosh

7. Chelsea tractor

8. YOLO, TMI, FOMO

9.  Snapchat, Vine

10. full nest syndrome