I posted two months ago about America’s Merriam-Webster dictionary update (New dictionary words (first post)). Now Britain’s Chambers Dictionary has announced new words for the tenth edition, due out around October 2006.
Chambers is known for having some offbeat definitions, the most famous being: an eclair is “a cake long in shape but short in duration.” Samuel Johnson’s 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language, the first major English dictionary, also had some amusing definitions, like pension: “An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.” I like Chambers’ pun for combover: “a vain attempt to make the most of one’s dwindling resources of hair.” The Japanese cleverly call a sparse combover “bar code hair” (バーコードヘア baakoodohea).
I’m not a fan of this word taikonaut (from Mandarin Chinese 太空 taikong, “outer space” + the -naut, “sailor,” of astronaut), just as I don’t like cosmonaut. They can use any term they want in Mandarin or Russian, but the English word should be astronaut regardless of the person’s nationality. It’s the same job.
British-only terms?
- Alcolock [US: ignition interlock]: “A breath-testing device fitted in a car that locks the ignition if the driver’s breath contains more than the permitted amount of alcohol”
- Chav: “A boorish, uneducated person who appears to have access to money but not to taste”
- Munter: “An unattractive person, especially a woman”
- Stooze: “To borrow money offered at zero or very low interest and invest it to make a profit”
Why weren’t these in 2003′s ninth edition?
- CGI (computer-generated imagery)
- Mockumentary
- Zone out
See also:
Chambers Reference Online: Chambers 21st Century Dictionary [2001], The Chambers Thesaurus (1996), and Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments)