Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
We all make judgments every day about what to believe and what not to believe, so it’s not surprising that there are several nice phrases to express this process.
If you have something on good authority, you have been given information about it by someone you trust:
I have it on good authority that she’s considering selling the property. Continue reading “I feel it in my bones: phrases connected with believing or disbelieving”
conversational commerce noun [U]
UK /ˌkɒn.vəˈseɪ.ʃən.əl ˈkɒm.ɜːs/ US /ˌkɑːn.vɚˈseɪ.ʃən.əl ˈkɑː.mɝːs/
the use of chatbots and other machine learning technology to make people feel they are talking to a real person when they buy things, ask for advice etc. online
With conversational commerce, customers can get quick answers to important questions, easily purchase items without having to navigate through entire websites, and receive helpful suggestions based on their previously collected customer data, including personalized product recommendations.
[bloomreach.com, 24 August 2023]
immaculate disinflation noun [U]
/ɪˌmæk.jə.lət dɪs.ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃᵊn/
the situation where inflation falls but this does not lead to a rise in unemployment, which would usually be expected
Economists added yet another term to their lexicon in recent months: immaculate disinflation. While there’s no official definition of immaculate disinflation, the phrase is being used to describe a scenario where inflation cools without causing a spike in unemployment … President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, expressed skepticism about the term. “I wouldn’t call this disinflation immaculate,” he said.
[edition.cnn.com, 6 September 2023]
hyperphysical retail noun [U]
UK /haɪ.pəˌfɪz.ɪ.kᵊl ˈriː.teɪl/ US /haɪ.pɚˌfɪz.ɪ.kᵊl ˈriː.teɪl/
the activity of making a shop more visually appealing and creating interesting experiences for the people who go there
With consumers’ growing appetite for engaging shopping experiences, brick-and-mortar stores now have to find more imaginative ways to compete. That’s why some brands are reinventing their retail spaces to make them so spectacular that visiting them is an emotional experience. Adding sensory and emotional attractions to a shop is a new trend called “hyperphysical retail”.
[medium.com, 29 September 2023]
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
Today, the Cambridge Dictionary announces its Word of the Year for 2023: hallucinate. You might already be familiar with this word, which we use to talk about seeing, hearing, or feeling things that don’t really exist. But did you know that it has a new meaning when it’s used in the context of artificial intelligence? Continue reading “Understanding AI jargon: Artificial intelligence vocabulary”
AGI noun [U]
/ˌeɪ.dʒiːˈaɪ/
ABBREVIATION FOR artificial general intelligence: a type of artificial intelligence that some people believe will be developed in the future, with the ability to learn to solve any kind of problem as well as, or better than, a human being
He defines AGI as AI systems that can solve any cognitive or human task in ways that are not limited to how they are trained. In theory, AGI, he says, can help scientists develop cures for diseases, discover new forms of renewable energy, and help “solve some of humanity’s greatest mysteries.”
[businessinsider.com, 27 May 2023]
See also artificial intelligence
Poltergeist attack noun [C]
UK /ˈpɒl.tə.ɡaɪst əˌtæk/ US / ˈpoʊl.t̬ɚ.ɡaɪst əˌtæk/
a way of using high-frequency sounds to cause the machine learning algorithms used by self-driving cars to make mistakes in identifying people, objects and other vehicles, which could cause accidents
Poltergeist attacks diverge from traditional cyber threats, such as hacking or jamming. They create deceptive visual realities, similar to optical illusions, for machines employing machine learning for decision-making processes.
[techtimes.com, 26 September 2023]
superalignment noun [U]
UK /ˌsuː.pə.rəˈlaɪn.mənt/ US /ˌsuː.pɚ.əˈlaɪn.mənt/
the study of how to control superintelligent AIs that may be built in the future so that they act in ways that are useful and not harmful to human beings
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and head of alignment Jan Leike wrote a blog post on the concept of superalignment, suggesting that the power of a superintelligent AI could lead to the disempowerment of humanity or even human extinction. “Currently, we don’t have a solution for steering or controlling a potentially superintelligent AI, and preventing it from going rogue,” the pair wrote.
[techmonitor.ai, 6 July 2023]
ground verb [T]
/ɡraʊnd/
to give an AI model facts about the real world so that it will produce information that is more accurate and useful
As we start to see more applications built upon foundational AI models — we will also see an increase in the use of external datasets, articles, networks and databases to “ground” the model to factual data and relevant user context.
[medium.com, March 2022]
ghost work noun [U]
UK /ˈɡəʊst ˌwɜːk/ US /ˈɡoʊst ˌwɝːk/
work done by a human being, usually online and for low pay, to do a task that most people believe is done automatically by a computer
“Ghost work” is anthropologist Mary L. Gray’s term for the invisible labor that powers our technology platforms. When Gray, a senior researcher at Microsoft Research, first arrived at the company, she learned that building artificial intelligence requires people to manage and clean up data to feed to the training algorithms.
[theverge.com, 13 May 2019]
voice cloning noun [U]
UK /ˈvɔɪs ˌkləʊ.nɪŋ/ US /ˈvɔɪs ˌkloʊ.nɪŋ/
the use of artificial intelligence to make recordings that sound like the voice of a specific person
… it looks like the system harnesses the power of voice cloning, which has grown in popularity in recent years. The technology works by taking samples of your voice; a computer model is then trained to generate speech in your voice based on whatever text input it applied.
[ukpcmag.com, 25 September 2023]
RLHF noun [U]
/ˌɑː.rel.eɪtʃˈef/
ABBREVIATION FOR reinforcement learning from human feedback: a technique that improves the performance of an AI by getting human beings to provide information about how good the results it currently produces are
Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) is an advanced approach to training AI systems that combines reinforcement learning with human feedback. It is a way to create a more robust learning process by incorporating the wisdom and experience of human trainers in the model training process.
[unite.ai, 29 March 2023]
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
This week we’re putting on our best clothes and grabbing a box of chocolates for the host because we’re going to a party! Well, okay, we’re not actually going to a party, but we are looking at words that we use to refer to social occasions where people meet up to enjoy themselves. You might be surprised at how many words there are. Continue reading “Reunions and housewarmings (Words for different parties)”
September Surge noun [C]
UK /sepˌtem.bə ˈsɜːdʒ/ US /sepˌtem.bɚ ˈsɝːdʒ/
an increase in job vacancies that is said to happen in September every year
Dust off your resume, rewrite your cover letters and start posting on LinkedIn. That’s the advice we’re hearing for recruiters as we head into the fall and enter the “September Surge,” a time when it might be easier to land a job. But we know 2023 has been full of layoffs and economic uncertainty. So will the fall be any different? Is the September Surge real?
[worklife.news, 28 August 2023]
burn-on noun [U]
UK /ˈbɜːn.ɒn/ US /ˈbɝːn.ɑːn/
a feeling of stress and exhaustion experienced by someone who has been working too hard for a long period but continues to be good at their job and appears to be enjoying it
Feeling overworked but not yet burned out? Often the problem is “burn-on,” an under-researched phenomenon whose sufferers desperately struggle to keep up and meet their own expectations — with dangerous consequences for their health … While those suffering from burn-out come to the clinic having already been brought to a standstill by depression, people with burn-on have often worked late into the night the evening before.
[worldcrunch.com, 3 December 2022]
See also burn-out
loud labourer noun [C]
UK /ˌlaʊd ˈleɪ.bᵊr.əʳ/ US /ˌlaʊd ˈleɪ.bɚ.ɚ/
someone who likes to tell colleagues about how busy and successful they are at work, when often this is not actually the case
It’s highly likely that at some point in your career, you’ve encountered a “loud labourer”. These are the people who love to toot their own horn. They’re constantly banging on about all the great stuff they’ve done … so much so that they hardly have time to actually complete their work. But that doesn’t matter, because to a loud labourer, work is not about productivity, but the appearance of it.
[worklife.news, 28 August 2023]
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
My last post looked at ways of responding to introductions and introducing other people. Today’s post gives some ideas about how to take the conversation further. We call this kind of chatting small talk but with luck it can lead to deeper and more interesting conversations! Continue reading “Have you come far? Chatting to someone you don’t know (2)”
sad beige adjective
/ˌsæd ˈbeɪʒ/
a way of describing the trend of dressing babies and young children in pale brown and other neutral shades because these colours are thought by the parents to be more tasteful and stylish than bright colours
What is “sad beige,” and why do some parents love it so much? The muted palette is hot now: influencers’ Instagram grids are full of photos of children wearing shades ranging from ivory to tan. There’s even a backlash against the so-called “sad beige” trend from people who believe children need a little more color in their lives.
[today.com, 18 January 2023]
traumedy noun [U]
UK /ˈtrɔː.m.ə.di/ US / ˈtrɑː.mə.di/
a type of comedy that involves someone talking about past traumatic events in their life in a funny way
Standup has certainly taken a sharp turn towards inner trauma in recent years, giving rise to the dismissive portmanteau term “traumedy” to describe the comedic habit of processing disturbing experiences live on stage. And the 2023 Edinburgh fringe now looks like the peak of the trend.
[theguardian.com, 20 August 2023]
crying make-up noun [U]
/ˈkraɪ.ɪŋ ˌmeɪk.ʌp/
a style of make-up that makes the wearer look as though they are, or have recently been, crying
“Crying make-up” is taking over TikTok, but has the “sad girl aesthetic” finally gone too far? Noor Mubarak, a psychological wellbeing practitioner, agrees that the crying make-up trend can be problematic. “For those who are struggling with feelings of despair and tearfulness, it can feel trivialising to see people trying to look like they are struggling for aesthetic purposes.”
[glamourmagazine.co.uk, 28 October 2022]
Listen to the author reading this blog post:
Readers of our About Words blog often ask us for posts on currently used English idioms. One way that we make sure we give you up-to-date idioms is by looking at expressions used in current newspapers. This week, the idioms come from a range of national newspapers that were published on 5 October 2023. Continue reading “The calm before the storm (Newspaper idioms)”
screen apnoea noun [U]
/ˈskriːn ˌæp.ni.ə/
the situation where someone stops breathing properly when they are looking at the screen of their mobile phone or similar device
The lack of movement that comes from sitting in front of a screen might also be a contributor to screen apnoea, says Dr David Spiegel. Disrupted breathing is the result of “a combination of not just what you’re doing but what you’re not doing,” he says, adding that he noticed screen apnoea among patients who worked high-stress jobs for long hours without getting much exercise or sleep.
[smh.com.au, 29 August 2023]
See also sleep apnoea
soft troll noun [C]
UK /ˌsɒft ˈtrəʊl/ US /ˌsɑːft ˈtroʊl/
a person who criticizes or makes nasty comments about someone on the internet but only to other people and not directly to the person in question
Have you ever hate-followed fake friends or acquaintances, revelled in online spats or screenshotted someone’s post to bitch about in your group chat? You could be a soft troll.
[stylist.co.uk, 28 August 2023]
See also troll
rage farming noun [U]
UK /ˈreɪdʒ ˌfɑː.mɪŋ/ US /ˈreɪdʒ ˌfɑːr.mɪŋ/
the activity of posting content on social media that aims to make the reader angry and then share the content with other users
A term which has recently entered common parlance is “rage farming” – a manipulative tactic by bloggers or journalists to elicit outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, revenue and support. Imagine that one individual who, when they appear on your timeline or tv screen, creates an instantaneous feeling of deep, unbridled anger. It seems this reaction is not just unproblematic for such individuals but eminently desirable.
[sluggerotoole.com, 18 January 2023]
