BBC
Radio
©
John Denney 1 July 2005
Mind
Your Language!
I’ve
recently come across a number of newish words and phrases that have brought me
some delight. Here’s a few:
|
Bling-bling |
Apparently,
if you don’t know what “bling-bling” means, you don’t have it. |
|
Podcasting |
Downloading
radio programmes onto your i-pod or MP3 player to listen to at your
convenience. And I thought cassette
recorders were pretty neat. |
|
Mockintosh |
Fake
furniture and other objects in the style of the great Charles Rennie Mackintosh |
|
Biffa
sniffer |
Someone
whose living is made from recycling the contents of waste skips[1]. |
|
Anti-tainment |
The
comedy television shows that everyone tells you you must watch but you don’t
find amusing, in my case including The
Office and Footballers’ Wives. |
|
Octothorpe |
The
proper name for the hash symbol on computer and telephone keypads, sometimes
called a reticule |
|
Larva
therapy |
The
use of maggots to clean dead tissue from wounds, also known as maggot
debridement therapy. They say it’s a
useful treatment in some cases but I hope I never have to experience it. |
|
Noble
cause corruption |
When
police officers fabricate evidence in cases where they are sure they know who
did it but haven’t the real evidence to prove it. |
|
Prairie
Dogging |
When
workers in open plan offices pop up and peer over the office screens to see
what’s going on elsewhere in the office. |
I
just love the way our language changes and develops, yet stays broadly the
same. The translators of the King James
Bible of 400 years ago would be able to make sense of 90 percent of modern
English, even if we struggle with the beautiful but difficult language of the
Authorised version of the Bible. Thank
God there are lively modern translations of the Bible available to us! Have you tried reading, say, one of the
gospels in an up to date version? You
might be surprised. No “Thees” and “Thous”,
no “begats”, just understandable exciting accounts of God’s unfolding plan for
mankind.
For
example, what about the Lord’s prayer from a recent version of the Bible, The Message:
Our Father in heaven, reveal
who you are. Set the world right; Do
what's best - as above, so below. Keep
us alive with three square meals. Keep
us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes! Yes! Yes![2] Great language. Great
meaning.