Word Nerd: Are you a GPS?
Thanks to the economy, technology and fashion, there are so many new words being created you’d have to be a “didiot” not to notice them. As a didiot myself, I assumed didiot means someone who’s an idiot with digital technology (that would be moi), but no: It is a hybrid of “damn” and “idiot.” A “yoot” sounds like either a Dr. Seuss character or the way your cousin Vinny would pronounce “youth,” but instead it is a person young enough not to remember life before youtube.
Men were already suffering in the “mancession” – meaning disproportionately more men are unemployed due to the languishing of traditionally male trades like construction. Now they have to cope with the “Tiger effect,” too. That’s newly alert wives checking up on them through cellphone, GPS, and email records. And by the by, a GPS is not just a gizmo but also a driver that gives too many directions. I have just bought a GPS myself and love it, but wish that instead of the bossy female voice directing me this way and that, I could have mine programmed with Colin Firth telling me in his posh British accent, “Oops! This is a one-way, ducky!” or “Wait ‘til the light goes green, love.”
Wouldn’t it be lovely to have Colin Firth’s voice programmed into your GPS to give you directions, ducky?
We have the recession to thank for the lack of a “speeding cushion,” that is the five miles above the speed limit that a nice ossifer used to let you get by with; now more tickets are being written as cities and states try to rev up their revenues. That “incentifies” drivers to follow the limits. I’ve been seeing “incentify” a lot in the business world; it’s one of those conversions of a noun to a verb that drives traditionalists and grammarians crazy. I have come around to the belief that in language, change is inevitable and correctness rests mostly upon usage; it’s like a river because it is never the same twice.
From the travel industry comes the word “yotel,” very small but sometimes very fancy accommodations that originated in Japan, allowing people to experience luxury for less. From fashion this spring comes “the shoe boot,” a warm weather version of the boot. For me, it conjures up a surprisingly tender “All in the Family” episode in which Archie recalls how other kids called him “shoe bootie” because he was so poor he had to wear one shoe and one boot to school. If you remember that episode, too, kid, you’re no “yoot.”
A longer version of this post appeared originally in the Telegraph Herald in Dubuque, Iowa.
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3 Comments
3 Responses to “Word Nerd: Are you a GPS?”
May 10, 2010 at 5:26 pm, by Rebecca Ward
I would LOVE Collin Firth giving directions on my GPS
May 27, 2010 at 2:59 pm, by Janis
I had rather Colin Firth be in the car with me, giving me directions!!!!! WOW!
June 4, 2010 at 9:57 am, by Rebecca Christian
Now that is brilliant.