New words – 2 May 2022

a young man relaxing on a lawn wearing headphones
JohnnyGreig / E+ / Getty

tang ping noun [S]
/ˌtæŋ ˈpɪŋ/
a Chinese term meaning “lie flat” that describes a trend where people reject the pressure to work long hours in a stressful job, and instead adopt a more relaxed lifestyle

Young people in China exhausted by a culture of hard work with seemingly little reward are highlighting the need for a lifestyle change by “lying flat”. The new trend, known as “tang ping”, is described as an antidote to society’s pressures to find jobs and perform well while working long shifts … The idea behind “tang ping” – not overworking, being content with more attainable achievements and allowing time to unwind – has been praised by many.
[bbc.co.uk/news, 3 June 2021]

WFC noun [U]
abbreviation for “working from cafés”: the activity of working remotely from a café rather than travelling to an office or working from home

Working from cafés (WFC) is probably also set to become a more prominent part of what we do … WFC is popular in places that have agile workforces and for freelance workers without a permanent office. But any office workers with a laptop have found it useful too. The flexibility of working unmonitored in a pleasant space often gives people the sense of freedom from standard workplace norms, and a connection to the world in which we live.
[www.sydney.edu.au/business/news-and-events, 7 September 2020]

jobfishing noun [U]
UK /ˈdʒɒb.fɪʃ.ɪŋ/ US /ˈdʒɑːb.fɪʃ.ɪŋ/
the illegal practice of recruiting people to work for a company that does not exist in order to trick them into sending their personal information and working without being paid

In jobfishing scams skilled, experienced professionals are taken in by fake companies and asked to pay money or share personal details before starting work. However, the impacts go beyond the financial. “The repercussions are terrible because not only can you lose money, you can have your identity stolen or completely derail your career,” McLean continues … “Jobfishing can take so much of your key information away from you, which can then be used in identity fraud or sold on.”
[www.stylist.co.uk, 30 March 2022]

About new words

8 thoughts on “New words – 2 May 2022

  1. amossoise

    Thanks for sharing with us new words used by English speaing people.. I personally do not used words “borrowed” from other language. I never used that kind of word neither in French nor in English. But I now new generation like to do so.I am happy to learn and understand new words even if I will never use it. As you can see. English is not my mother tongue.

    1. NatalieG

      Considering that English has borrowed and integrated so much of its vocabulary from French, since 1066 when Guillaume le Bâtard made French the language of the English court and upper classes, that is a funny comment.

  2. Hello – I had only seen “lie flat” in English – and not the original Mandarin expression.

    [wondered if TANG PING was the right way to write it from the pronunciation given here] … [and wondered if the Cambridge Dictionary universally uses Pinyin or some other transliteration].

    And people have worked from cafes for such a long time. Since the Industrial Revolution at least.

    Just about anything and everything can be -fished … [or indeed phished! which is what that expression and that behaviour remind me of].

    Jobfishing seems like a very new word [that citation from March 2022] – though not a new concept!

    ***

    Amossoise:

    About Franglais and other things – I probably do understand you there.

    [That is English words walking into French without an Academie Francaise-stamped passport].

    [And people became much more strict about it around 1994 or 1993].

    And that is why English is such a big language – it takes in anything and everything. Algebra from Arabic and geometry from Greek for two. And, yes, tang ping from Mandarin!

    The attitude/spirit would have been called Saxonism [in which only Saxon words were used in modern-day English].

    Glad you’re happy to learn and understand new words and have them in your passive vocabulary.

    ***

    Just noticed the Working from Cafes is from the University of Sydney? and not the University of New South Wales … and it made me think of what I had read about Agile Workspaces a few days ago.

    It really does make that third space happen doesn’t it?

      1. Thank you, Taiwanese person!

        So TONGUE PING I will say and tang ping I will spell.

        [and that means the A is more like a short U?]

        [or perhaps it is more like OONG].

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