New words – 23 March 2020

Betsie Van der Meer/Stone/Getty Images

smishing noun [U]
/ˈsmɪʃ.ɪŋ/
an attempt to trick someone into giving personal information by text message that would allow someone else to take money from them, for example by taking money out of their bank account

People across the U.S. are receiving text messages that claim to be from FedEx and ask you to set “delivery preferences.” It’s a new example of a growing scam called “smishing”, in which fraudsters send unsolicited messages from well-known companies or reputable sources to try to obtain phone access and personal information from their targets. The scheme is similar to phishing, long a source of scam email, only it’s powered by the short message service, or SMS, technology used in texting.
[cbsnews.com, 24 January 2020]

burglary tourism noun [U]
UK /ˌbɜː.glᵊr.i.ˈtʊə.rɪ.zᵊm/ US /ˌbɝː.glɚ.i.ˈtʊr.ɪ.zᵊm/
the activity of going to another country to burgle someone’s home

Thieves ransacked his home while he and his wife were away in October last year. The gang stole more than £33,000 worth in belongings, including a gold Rolex watch. It’s believed he was the latest target of “burglary tourism” which involves foreign criminals flying to the capital to target luxury homes. The thieves are difficult to track because they are missing from police databases and usually flee the country soon after the raid.
[itv.com/news, 15 January 2020]

climate criminal noun [C]
UK /ˌklaɪ.mət.ˈkrɪm.ɪ.nᵊl/ US /ˌklaɪ.mət.ˈkrɪm.ə.nᵊl/
a person or organization whose actions make the climate emergency worse

Toni Vernelli, the head of communications at the Veganuary campaign, which encourages people to go vegan for the month of January, claimed that coffee chains still charging extra for plant milks were “climate criminals”. She said: “Animal farming is responsible for more than half of all food-related greenhouse gases and cows are the prime cause”.
[The Times, 18 January 2020]

About new words

5 thoughts on “New words – 23 March 2020

  1. Pedro Juan Moranta

    “Thieves ransacked his home while he and his wife were away in October last year”. One question comes to my mind if the thieves fly to the capital and flee away after the robbery how come they knew exactly where to rob as the owners were on holiday. Is there any connection that shows the robbers were to go, in the first place?

  2. aleov

    Climate criminal no creo que sea una expresión idiomática ni una frase, es una oración correcta y que puede utilizarse como oración, creo que no reviste ningún otro significado como las expresiones idiomáticas lo hacen.

    1. CARMEN PM

      Es un compuesto, y como tal, no es totalmente predecible semánticamente, sino que requiere echar mano del conocimiento extralingüístico (e.g. qué está ocurriendo con el clima) para su correcta interpretación. Estoy, por tanto, de acuerdo con que no es una expresión idiomática.

      1. Pradip Kumar

        I thik, They gather input from local sources and soon after the climate criminals execute their plan of ransacking the house or the premises.

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