Big Data noun the immense amount of data now available, especially data about the preferences and interests of the public, as a result of social media use

If 2008 was about the advent of social media in politics, 2012 is about big data. It’s about how to extract the value of social media as it impacts the relationship between candidates, the way they try to raise money, the way they try to deliver message, and the way voters react to those messages and actually participate in the democratic process.

[WNYC: The Takeaway 6 June 2012]

Big Data probably knows more about us then we ourselves do, but is there stuff that Big Data itself doesn’t know it knows?

[New York Times (US broadsheet) 5 June 2012]

data journalism noun the creation of news content on the basis of data rather than events

Two years on and data journalism is part of the fabric of what we, and many other news organisations do. What is it?

[www.guardian.co.uk 23 May 2012]

mem noun an image or piece of text that helps you to remember something

We use ‘mems’ to help you form vivid, sensory memories.

[www.memrise.com 12 May 2012]

About new words

banner blindness noun the ability to ignore banner advertising on websites

Banner blindness is a well-documented phenomenon. The modern-day internet consumer is well aware of, and used to, the standard advertising formats.

[www.guardian.co.uk 12 April 2012]

textonym noun a word that is produced by predictive texting, that is not the word you want

Words added to the T9 dictionary take priority over existing textonyms.

[www.amazon.com 15 May 2012]

tweet seats plural noun seats in a theatre or concert hall given over to patrons wishing to tweet during a performance

The controversy around tweet seats often focuses on the physical disruption of the phone (the light! the tapping!), but it can also serve as a proxy to discuss the changing relationship of the audience to symphonic music.

[http://symphonyforum.org 18 April 2012]

About new words

binge thinker noun someone who tends to worry or think about multiple subjects in an uncontrolled way

‘We’ve become a nation of binge thinkers with worry in-trays we can never clear, ‘ says stress expert Professor Cary Cooper from Lancaster University.

[Grazia (UK celebrity magazine) 11 June 2012]

equine therapist noun a practitioner of a therapy involving horses in which people with psychological conditions ease their trauma by connecting with the horse and performing simple tasks with them

An equine therapist on Harley Street is gathering data to prove that it works.

[BBC Radio 4, 28 May 2012]

family balancing noun the ability to select the gender of a child in order to provide the desired gender mix in a family

Dr. Gillian Lockwood, Consultant Gynaecologist, Medical Director of the Midland Fertility Services debated for the motion ‘This house believes that PGD for sex selection for family balancing (gender selection) is a basic human right’.

[www.ukcfa.co.uk 04 June 2012]

About new words

glass cliff noun the tendency for women to be selected for posts where failure is a strong likelihood

Researchers have documented the ‘glass cliff’ in a wide variety of settings. In an examination of Britain’s 2005 general election, Ryan and Haslam ranked ridings by how secure they were for the Conservatives. Then they looked at the gender of the Conservative candidates who contested the election. As the likelihood of winning the riding declined, they found, the likelihood that the candidate was a woman increased.

[www.vancouversun.com 12 April 2012]

HENRY abbreviation high earner not rich yet; refers to a person with an income between $100,000 and $250,000

He says the middle class and the poor don’t have as much spending power as the HENRYs and the rich are scaling back.

[WNYC: Marketplace 18 June 2012]

nappy wall noun the barrier that prevents a woman with a young child from progressing in the workplace

That what too many women face nowadays isn’t a ‘glass ceiling’ because of their sex, but a ‘nappy wall’ if they choose to have a child as well as a career?

[www.telegraph.co.uk 15 June 2012]

About new words

dadpreneur noun a man who creates a business connected with fatherhood

An idea that started with a cut-out creation from an old wetsuit, for his newborn daughter, has turned into an award-winning, international success for Cambridge based ‘dadpreneur’, Paul Brown.

[www.cambridge-news.co.uk 22 May 2012]

mumblogger noun a mother who blogs about topics of interest to other mothers

A large number of mumbloggers – mothers who write blogs – are meeting in the flesh, at Moorgate in London.

[The Guardian (UK broadsheet) 23 June 2012]

mummy porn noun informal pornographic literature adopted primarily by a demographic of young/young-ish mothers

I was on the train the other day with a pile of women reading porn. Mummy Porn that is – to coin that unsavoury new phrase.

[www.google.co.uk 06 June 2012]

About new words

activist investor noun someone who buys shares in a company in order to use the influence that gives them to campaign on an issue

The board of Yahoo is discussing the future of Scott Thompson, its chief executive, after an activist investor at the technology giant accused him of lying on his CV.

[The Independent (UK broadsheet) 10 May 2012]

cash mob noun a group of people who descend on a retail business and spend money as a gesture of support for that business

Cash mob rules are simple: Spend at least $20, meet three new people and have fun.

[www.mercurynews.com 29 June 2012]

crowdfunded adjective funded by asking many people to contribute, usually in an online campaign

DailyMotion teams up with Flattr for crowdfunded video

[gigaom.com 02 May 2012]

shareholder spring noun rebellion by shareholders in the UK against a company’s directors, particularly in relation to director pay

Strikingly, though, a deeper analysis of this so-called ‘shareholder spring’ of investor uprisings shows it may not really exist. There have been just four defeats so far of companies in votes on their so-called ‘remuneration reports’, and only one of these companies has been in the FTSE100 list of biggest businesses.

[www.bbc.co.uk 12 June 2012]

About new words

applepick verb to steal someone’s iPhone

Somebody walked down the aisle and plucked my iPhone right out of my hand […] The people at the store were very sympathetic
[…] But they were like, ‘Oh yeah you got applepicked. Yeah, happens a lot.’

[WNYC: All things Considered (current affairs radio show) 10 April 2012]

iWAG noun humorous the wife or girlfriend of a successful internet entrepreneur

One of the newest recruits to the dubiously named iWAG crew is Kaitlyn Trigger, girlfriend of Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger.

[Grazia (UK celebrity magazine) 14 May 2012]

murder-cam noun a device which takes a 3-D image of a crime scene

Detectives in Cambridgeshire have a new weapon to catch killers because of a high-tech £146,000 ‘murder-cam’.
The scanner can take a 3D image of a crime scene in just 10 minutes, saving hours of crucial time after a murder has taken place.

[Cambridge News (local newspaper) 28 May 2012]

About new words

promession noun a green way of disposing of dead bodies which involves freeze-drying the remains

Promession is a method of freeze-drying the body patented by Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Masak.

[The Observer (UK broadsheet) 4 March 2012]

reality soap noun a TV show which features a cast who are not professional actors, but who are shown in stage-managed situations

Hoboken, New Jersey, the Garden State city best known as the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, drew the ire of fans of the vodka-soaked reality soap Jersey Shore this week.

[www.sheknows.com 3 Feb 2012]

That is something I can assure you, as I had my share of witnessing tv-productions being made and even participated in a pilot for reality soap, taped in L.A.

[meetmisso.creatorsofdesire.com 16 Feb 2012]

twit-rape verb to hijack someone’s Twitter account and tweet as if you are them

The intern wrote: ‘I should log out of my Twitter so that my intern doesn’t twit-rape me…’

[www.digitalspy.co.uk 26 Jan 2012]

twittion noun a Twitter petition

Please sign this twittion so we can prove that there are MANY fans here in Australia!

[b2staustralia.blogspot.com 17 Jan 2012]

About new words

CRASBO abbreviation a criminal anti-social behaviour order; an order made on the back of a criminal conviction

Following that conviction, neighbourhood officers applied for a CRASBO – Criminal Anti-Social Behaviour Order – which was granted on Wednesday.

[www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk 20 Jan 2012]

eurogeddon noun total economic meltdown in Europe

Access report warns of ‘Eurogeddon’

[www.abc.net.au 23 Jan 2012]

geophony noun the combined sounds of the natural world – wind, waves, etc.

[…] As opposed to a geophony, which would be the wind and the waves and things like that.

[WNYC: Soundcheck (music) 12 March 2012]

glitterbomb verb to throw glitter on someone (as a protest against homophobic views)

In a message to the micro-blogging service Twitter, a person using the name Nick Espinosa said: ‘I just glitterbombed Mitt Romney and yelled ‘feel the rainbow, the 1 percent pays for hate, you’re not welcome in our state!’’

[globalpost.com 1 Feb 2012]

About new words

human safari noun a trip in which tourists can glimpse indigenous peoples

India has ordered the arrest of a tour operator for running a ‘human safari’ after a video emerged showing police making half-naked women from a tiny island tribe dance in return for food.

[www.guardian.co.uk 12 Jan 2012]

phablet noun a hybrid device that is halfway between a smartphone and a tablet computer

Hankil Yoon, a product strategy executive at Samsung, is showing off the new Galaxy Note, an over-sized smartphone with a 5.3 inch display that’s part of a new class of phones being dubbed “phablets.”

[www.forbes.com 28 Feb 2012]

pin verb to put an image or video on a virtual moodboard on the website Pinterest

It allows people to create online displays of their likes and dislikes – from home decor to nail art – by ‘pinning’ images and videos on to virtual boards.

[The Guardian (UK broadsheet) 25 Feb 2012]

reem adjective very informal excellent or attractive

The king of all things reem will be showing fans The Only Way Is Scunthorpe when he is a special guest at Henry’s nightclub student night.

[www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk (UK local newspaper) 1 March 2012]

Listening to: Never Shout Never!<3<3 {he is totes reem, aka TOTALLY AWESOME. just saying}.

[mylovelaughpeace.piczo.com 17 Feb 2012]

About new words