Sunday 12 February 2012

Hooray!

Hooray! These are words that have an inbuilt upside. We just know that “character” is something worth building, and if we “transform” a school it will get better. (“Moving on doesn't always mean moving up” – Mariella Frostrup)

Behave! = behave well

build character = the right kind of character (Try searching on Amazon for "build character". You can even buy books of "character-building" songs for your kids. In unison and harmony.)

character development
= always assumed to be in the right direction

exclusive
(Hang on, don’t we want to be inclusive?)

gritty
Real, working-class, fiction about criminals and low-lifes with graphic sex and violence, ie not quaint, cosy etc. "All their cliches about Glasgow writers were fished out and came in handy, although... the Scotsman suggested that ‘abuse of the adjective “gritty” should henceforth be deemed a capital offence'." Neal Ascherson Independent October 1994 Can be used as a boo word if you want to convey that an area is blue-collar without actually saying so.

personality = see character

sustainable = Now means something vague like “protects wildlife” or “doesn’t destroy rainforests in Java”. Or just “good”. Has taken over from “holistic”.

transform = always in the right direction “We’re going to transform British education” – you might transform it into something ghastly. “He pointed out a number of academies that weren’t ‘transforming fast enough’.” Guardian 24 Sept 2011

transformation “Bill Bratton, the former US police chief now advising the government on gangs, has told the Guardian he can bring about ‘transformational’ change in the UK.” BBC August 15, 2011

Value, fashion, period, character (property) = good value, high fashion, historical period, quirky character

vibrant = all-purpose hooray word (or code for diverse, which is short for “diverse ethnic groups”, which is code for “ethnic groups with different skin colours”)

More here.
More here, and links to the rest.

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