Brave New Words 2011

Dictionary-approved new words from a list published in the January-Febuary AARP bulletin – out of a much longer list, these strike my fancy:

automagically, adv., automatically in a way that seems magical.  What a perfect word – maybe everybody else in the Western world has been saying it for years but it’s new to me.

cheeseball adj. tasteless or out of style.  Well, according to the food section in the local paper, actual cheeseballs are still going strong every holiday season.

green-collar adj. having  to do with work in the environmental or green business sector.  Blue-collar, white-collar, pink-collar, green-collar….  all have to do with the actual shirts worker wear.  Some green companies (as well as plant nurseries) do put their hands-on people in green polo shirts.

home-shoring n., moving jobs, like offshoring, but to employees’ homes.  It can be a great deal for the employee or not, but bound to be better than your job going to somebody in India  and you are asked to train them.

paywall n. a mechanism that restricts Website access to paying users only.  They’re everywhere.  An indicator is that phrase “go premium!” i.e., “now that you like this Website/tool, let’s get you to pay for it.”

sheeple n. unquestioning, sheeplike followers.  It might be insultingly used of followers of religious movements, but seems to me a lot of us are sheeple consumers.  The ad says buy, we say how many?

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