Buzz words for 2011, Part One

The perfect anti-present

pitch perfect for perfect (have they misheard picture perfect? And was it originally picture postcard perfect?)

bimble (verb of motion)
gamification (what you have to do to your web site)
re-engineer
maje (for major)
doable
blows popular for all sorts of misfortune

Lots of things being “unearthed” from places without any topsoil, like libraries. 2011-01-12 Chandigarh: The I-T department has unearthed unaccounted money worth over Rs 7 crore from Punjab-based wholesale vegetable merchants, an official said on Wednesday. The money was unearthed by the authorities during a survey last week to check commodity hoarding in the wake of soaring onion prices… The I-T sleuths unearthed a whopping Rs 4.25 crore as undisclosed... (from the veg merchants’ bank accounts, presumably, not their flower beds) World News

That’s me done (“That’s me cancelled that.” RBS worker)
A Jack and Jill bathroom is a bathroom with two doors, accessible from two bedrooms
first mover advantage
lift taking over from raise? (Obama lifts then crushes peace hopes)
Footspa and digital photo frame now classic white elephant gift for the person you don’t like
mainstream (people who like The King’s Speech)

Mark Ragan complains about neologisms: convergence, holistic, time bond, socialize (socialize a concept – go out on the floor and talk to people about it), human business, touchpoints, awareness, bridging, lurkers, mashups, peer-to-peer, flash mob

smashed (potatoes, garlic cloves etc)
People accuse people who criticize them of being “cowardly” – Duncan Bannatyne calls tripadvisor despicable and cowardly (because it criticized his hotels, Guardian January 25, 2011)

overthink (something you shouldn’t do)

Words that should be banned now: Provider, Progressive, Value, Choice, Big and Society. (Charles Holland)

artisan/artisanal
alas: please save for situations that are genuinely tragic, and don’t use when you mean but or however or unfortunately

nor (it only comes after “neither”, or after a negative statement. They didn’t go to school. Nor did they go to the playground. But you can’t say: They went to school. Nor did they go to the playground.)

atop – now that really is a ghastly Americanism
pat-down (airport search)
tip jar model – you have a web “tip jar” and people put in what they like for reading/downloading your stuff
tweetage notspot – no broadband
monsoon bucket (used by helicopter to drop water on fire)
time stamp
treading water (what the stock/housing market is doing)
man up
barefoot luxury (holiday in hut built over shallow sea etc)
Damn you, iced tea! (And variants.)
to creep out (vt) (That creeps me out!)

reimagine (remake unnecessarily and utterly ruin book/film/TV show; clad, restructure and utterly ruin building)

up continues (man up, style up – Jilly Cooper used to talk about people “ageing up” a house.)
oil shock week of March 7 2011
hipster has returned from a 50-year holiday
wear the armband (captain the team)
numpty (a few years)
heartbreaking (after the Japan earthquake)
scare quotes (Americanism?)
having a moment
that London
hunker down – what did we say before we adopted this Americanism? Did it begin with H? Was it “hole up”? “Dig in”? (People saying “bunker down” instead in June 2011.)

hopey, changey, bibley ect When needing to write, switching all your internet-y connective-y programmes on at once is not going to help. (Douglas Murphy)
passion/s
rib-eye steak (What is it? Where did that come from?)
fawn (v) week of April 29

wrong’un, good’un, bad’un seem to have returned from wherever they’ve been hiding since 1890.
slider (kind of a breakfast scone with a filling of your choice)
nerf gun: some kind of water pistol or potato gun, me lud
off grid – Americanism? Our cities don’t have grids.

so long as for as long as – Americanism?
face-palm
drubbing popular week of AV vote
roulotte (like an old gypsy caravan/posh person’s park home or chalet)
undertake (overtake on the inside)

Web 2.0, bubble 2.0, coalition 2.0 (years and YEARS after software issues started this kind of numbering system)

bad decisions (drink, drugs, sleeping around)
by contrast strangely popular week of May 18, 2011 (lingering on in July. If you’re contrasting two things, readers can usually work that out.)

starting sentences with But
rightly
fawning is back – it’s Prince Philip’s birthday
all-too popular week of June 13
redacted now means censored (removed from text)

cotton on to seems to be popular again (in 70s it seemed like self-conscious 50s posh slang). Or "cotton to" as Americans say (they seem to think it’s Southern hick speak).

very – the very day of the wedding.
Oddly, nobody’s been “fawning” on Will and Kate during their trip to Canada.
deep dive (into Web story etc)
early doors
tectonic has taken over from seismic

arrogant popular, but used to mean “nasty” or “unacceptable” or "adamant" – or something

to that end seems to have gone out (thank heavens)
brutal, arrogant as all-purpose boo words
forever (forever friends, we wanted this to be our forever home)
pop-up (shop etc.) End-July backlash and pleas for people to drop it.

Buzz Words of 2011 here and here.
Complete Buzz Words of 2010 here.
Buzz Words of 2009 here.
Buzz Words of 2008 and beyond here.