Words you obviously SHOULD understand

[mattc]

Every now-and-then words appear, overnight, in the media - they are tossed around in a manner that suggests *everyone* has been using them for years, and they need no explanation.

(There is a subclass of words invented by academics to sound clever, that are only used by a few dozen worldwide - the trick is to tell these two apart. I heard "invisiblized" on Radio4 today, which I suspect is one of them.)

Recent examples (for me):

Liminal

Gaslight

[Kim]

When I was a child, I came across new words all the time, and learned to deal with them by either trying to find out what they meant or by waiting and hoping I'd be able to work it out from context.  Logic suggests this is normal and ordinary and to be expected.

As I grew older, this happened less frequently, but the way is see it if the asymptote is zero then I must be doing something wrong.


I think there's a media bias in what they think warrants an explanation, simply as a result of the background expertise that people who work in the media consider to be normal.  So they might throw 'gaslight' or 'subprime' around as if anyone who doesn't understand the term is an uncultured oaf, but provide a handy (if not entirely accurate) pop-out explanation of what a 'blockchain' is.

And of course this evolves over time as different subjects dominate current affairs, with the people in the media generally being at the front of the curve.  So if you're late to the party (a week is a long time in politics), you miss the explanation of new terms.

[ian]

I got out of my way to try to learn new words (today was encomium), it flexes my brain and I like new words, not really to be clever, I'm just passing on the pleasure of a new thing learned. I think plain English has its place, but something there's no fun in lowering everything to the reading level of a five-year-old. Of course, you can go too far and end up babbling like a Boris. Everything needs context.

Being able to tap a word on screen or an e-reader and get a definition is one of the coolest things ever.

[pcolbeck]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

My pet hate is when pronunciation changes overnight. Basically it usually means the BBC pronunciation department has had a brain fart.

[mattc]

I got out of my way to try to learn new words (today was encomium), it flexes my brain and I like new words, not really to be clever, I'm just passing on the pleasure of a new thing learned.

Oh you carry on old chap - I don't intend to be compunctuous about this.

[Mrs Pingu]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

Gaslighting isn't new http://www.dictionary.com/browse/gaslight

[citoyen]

I assumed gaslighting to be a reference to the film(s)/play - though no one has ever explained it to me properly, the meaning is obvious if you’re familiar with the source.

Liminal obviously isn’t new but I have noticed an increase in its use recently. It seems relevant to the cultural changes we seem to be going through at the moment.

[mattc]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

I didn't say liminal was new

But I suppose I did imply it, kinda ... Completely new words are pretty rare. I'd say liminal is an example of quite an old word that has recently come into much more frequent usage. Of course this is my entirely subjective view; it's probably more common on certain channels than others, and i probably only noticed it when frequency went above some completely subjective threshold. I hear words I don't understand all the time - it's only when they suddenly occur more often that I notice them .... and usually look them up, cos I hate not knowing things like this!

(liminal was a particular irritation, because you can't easily infer its meaning from the very common SUBliminal. )

[hellymedic]

AIUI gaslight has become a new(ly popular) term to describe abuse, usually of women who are made to think they are going mad. (Abuser surreptitiously dims illumination and claims woman is going blind or stupid.)

[Basil]

I must admit that I was a little confused at first at the word ' covfef' which kept appearing in my Twitter time line.
Shout out to Brian Moore for managing to use it during the France /Ireland  commentary, knowing he'd make Welsh rugby fans down their drinks.
Well, at least those following the @welshdalilama 6 nations drinking game.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

My pet hate is when pronunciation changes overnight. Basically it usually means the BBC pronunciation department has had a brain fart.

 

Gas Light (known in the United States as Angel Street) is a 1938 play by the British dramatist Patrick Hamilton. The play (and its film adaptations) gave rise to the term gaslighting with the meaning "a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim with the intent of making them doubt their own memory and perception".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Light

It is a technique that was used by interrogators in and after WW2. Rather later I witnessed someone using it (on another man) altho' I didn't understand what was going on, being very young, but it left a vivid impression. Verbal assault. Not nice but effective.   

[Beardy]

The rather cleverer than me Dr Beardy (Mrs) uses the word liminal quite a lot in her witterings writings. I’m still not sure I quite understand what she is talking about.

[CrinklyLion]

The rather cleverer than me Dr Beardy (Mrs) uses the word liminal quite a lot in her witterings writings. I’m still not sure I quite understand what she is talking about.

It has been one of my most favourite words in the whole world since I first discovered it, about 30 years ago as a teen.  I once had a very splendid seminar at universtiy in which our course tutor and I excitedly discussed the use of liminal spaces in a play (possible a Molière?) while the rest of the group took notes, and there are a few forumites who have had an epic drunken ear-bending about the wonder of bridges as liminal spaces.  Which led to the best thread on the internet, ever...

[rogerzilla]

Noisome.

[jsabine]

Noisome.

That's just minging.

[ElyDave]

I must admit to gaslight as a verb has completely escaped me vs a gaslight as a noun.

I am a firm believer though in actually going and reading a definition of a word to understand it yourself, rather than what you think it means from how other use it. Example - daughter explaining why (history homework) Hitler was only partially responsible for WWII - the subject of Versailles reparations came up - I explained my understanding of the word, and suggested she look it up for herself to cement it in her brain

[mark]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

Ten years ago, you didn't hear "gaslight" in the US very often. The Trump administration seems to have made that term popular.

[meddyg]

All shows are now 'curated' by so and so
Films 'premiere' and every radio show (on Radio 3 at least) 'showcases' talents of tonight's artist.

I even heard 'midwifing' in the context of some project being realised on stage.

These aren't really new words, just new usage appearing to give the speaker some kind of authority over his subject
and plebeian audience.*



*stating in words no one understands, what everyone knew already !

[Redlight]

There seems to be a general drift towards using nouns as verbs, as Meddyg's examples indicate.  Of these, 'invite' for 'invitation' is the most irritating IMO.

[Poacher]

...and using adjectives as nouns, as in "Find your happy". Drives me mad, it does! Almost as much as using "refute" incorrectly. It's not big, and it's not clever.

[ian]

Words change, get with it granddad(s).

I presume 'gaslight' came to the fore recently because it's a bit less wordy that describing the process and outcome. To my mind, it doesn't seem to work as a word, mostly because my brain spends a few moment trying to picture an actual hazy gaslit scene, maybe London 1890, guvnor.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

My pet hate is when pronunciation changes overnight. Basically it usually means the BBC pronunciation department has had a brain fart.

 

Gas Light (known in the United States as Angel Street) is a 1938 play by the British dramatist Patrick Hamilton. The play (and its film adaptations) gave rise to the term gaslighting with the meaning "a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim with the intent of making them doubt their own memory and perception".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Light

It is a technique that was used by interrogators in and after WW2. Rather later I witnessed someone using it (on another man) altho' I didn't understand what was going on, being very young, but it left a vivid impression. Verbal assault. Not nice but effective.

But it seems to be commonly used with a less specific meaning. And, as matt suggests with liminal v subliminal, it's meaning can't be inferred from gaseous combustion.

[T42]

Liminal isn't new. Gaslight is though its an Americanism that is becoming more prevalent over here. Ten years ago you wouldn't have heard it in the UK.

Gaslighting isn't new http://www.dictionary.com/browse/gaslight

Tickled by the box at the bottom right of the page, entitled "Words you've been using wrong".

[T42]

Words change, get with it granddad(s).

I presume 'gaslight' came to the fore recently because it's a bit less wordy that describing the process and outcome. To my mind, it doesn't seem to work as a word, mostly because my brain spends a few moment trying to picture an actual hazy gaslit scene, maybe London 1890, guvnor.

And that there picture, Gassy by Fanlight.

[citoyen]

But it seems to be commonly used with a less specific meaning.

I've sometimes found myself doubting my understanding of the term because of the way it is used, but I think you're right that the meaning has changed a bit so it has a more general 'fake news' sense.

I'm assuming that people who misuse the term haven't seen the film. They should. It's great. Well, the Ingrid Bergman version is - I've not seen the other one.