WORD OF THE YEAR IS TRUTHINESS, UNLESS IT'S PODCAST

Because there really aren’t enough words in the world, here’s a new one, recently voted Word of the Year by the people who decide there things, truthiness which means stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts, a fuzzy, nebulous sort of truthfulness. Podcast is the most useful and the most Creative terms are “whale tail”, the appearance of the thong above the waistband and “muffin top”, the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low rider pants”, both fairly squicky (unappealing).

Interesting how new words become part of the lexicon. This year has been particularly fruitful in terms of words for things that never used to exist. Here’s a brilliant idea for the nicotine bereft, the butt bus, a bus parked near a pub or restaurant that is used as the establishment's smoking section. Then there’s acoustic snooping, stealing data by decoding the sounds of keyboard strokes, jumping the couch, thanks to Tom Cruise and splog, a cross between a blog and spam, pupperware, dog accessories and toys sold at in-home parties, and zooing, to stare or ogle in a fixed way. Ever been accused of drailing? Sending an embarrassing e-mail message while drunk., don’t lie, we’ve all done it, and it tends to end us as a fiascal, between a fiasco and a hassle.

In the office, you might encounter nut-hugging, the highest glorified behaviour associated with ass-kissing, and if that doesn’t work, you could consider a nupgrade, to upgrade one’s life via nuptials or even become an angst entrepreneur, the weasels who profit from scaring the bejesus out of the rest of us on a more or less continuous basis.

If you live in Joburg, you might have come across a Garage Mahal, a large ostentatious house, which exists solely to house a couple of 4x4’s and a Porsche.

Some words and terms have become so obnoxious they are henceforth banished for all eternity, and looky there our favourite word for schoolkids, “learners”. That word is now banished, can’t say it anymore, ag shame, the SABC will have to think of something else.