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Journalism of Courage
The news media is a cornucopia of coinages which mirror the political, social and economic ebb and flow of countries and societies. Keeping abreast of the news, therefore, gives you an opportunity to witness the birth of words and expressions. Some of them prove short-lived but many others ensconce themselves in the English lexicon pretty well.
The 2022 Britain’s Word of the Year, as announced by Collins Dictionary, is ‘permacrisis’, a portmanteau of permanent and crisis, referring to an extended period of things going awry. Although the word reflects the state of world affairs in the past three years, for Britain it captures a series of setbacks — beginning with Brexit, then the pandemic, and finally the partygate (one of the shortlisted words which fought for the Word of the Year crown) that saw Boris Johnson lying and committing a political hara-kiri (remember the word?).
That Britain has seen five prime ministers in the past six years reflects that not everything is hunky-dory (this too, remember?) in the country that once ruled a quarter of the world’s people.
It has been a remarkable slide since the days of Cool Britannia, a slogan which encapsulated a supposed renaissance of pop culture in Britain in the mid-1990s, featuring bands, clothes designers, restaurateurs, etc., which inspired the world. A pun on ‘Rule, Britannia’, and which was used in a title song of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, its appeal died a natural death amid accusations that politics of the day was cashing in on this a bit too much.
Those born in the 1960s and 70s would easily recall Beatlemania, a craze for the British pop group, the Beatles, and their characteristics. It later lent names to similar terms for adulation of other pop groups, like Rollermania caused by the Bay City Rollers in the mid-1970s.
The land of the Lord’s has given a term cricketing buffs still chew on almost three decades after its birth. Ball-tampering means an infringement of the rules of the game by altering the condition of the ball. It could be done by raising its seam with the fingernail or a metal object, or using an artificial substance to shine it.
The practice has been as old as the gentleman’s game but got media attention in the 1990s, notably when the England captain, Mike Atherton, was accused of rubbing earth on the ball during a Test with South Africa in 1994. The formation treats the normally intransitive tamper (which as a verb takes the preposition with) as if it could take a direct object.
From the land of the language puritans, that’s quite interesting!
Wordly Wise is a new weekly column. It will be published every Saturday in Explained. Please tweet your feedback to @ieexplained
