The editors at OxfordDictionaries.com don’t want to get left behind with all the advances in the English language and so they decided to add a thousand new words to their online dictionary. It’s worth noting that here we’re referring to the popular online dictionary of Oxford University, which is not related to the highly regarded dictionary by the same name. The website The Week decided to publish an article with a list of those that were, in their opinion, the most peculiar.
Some of them are phrases that are not particularly new (for example, five-second rule) and others are quite recent (duckface, Obamacare). And though the list involves words that are beginning to take hold in Great Britain and Australia, it just may happen that they arrive on U.S. shores.
The list is as follows:
- AL DESKO
Just like “al fresco” means eating outdoors, al desko is to eat at one’s desk. That’s pretty common these days: your hand on the fork and your eyes on the monitor.
- MAHOOSIVE
This means a level above “massive,” similar to “descomunal” in Spanish.
- MAMIL
This means “middle aged man in Lycra” and refers to the current obsession with cycling. It’s easy to recognize a MAMIL in their natural habitat. Their bike is expensive and their outfit is more professional than it need be.
- MARMITE
Marmite is an English edible spread that tastes a bit like yeast and is a little salty. People either love it or they hate it. And that’s why it is now used to condense into just one word “something that tends to provoke strongly positive or negative reactions, rather than indifference.”
- SHINY BUM
It speaks for itself. It is an Australian term for office workers or bureaucrats. How the term came about doesn’t require much explaining.
- STICKER LICKER
This is the way Australians refer to officials who issue traffic tickets.
- THE ANT’S PANTS
It can be used as a joking take on “the bee’s knees,” a somewhat outdated expression to mean that someone is cool.
- TIKI-TAKA
In South America it’s known as Tiki-tiki. A soccer term referring to a specific style of play.
- TOMOZ
Abbreviated form of “Tomorrow,” to help one save on ink.
