Arab Spring and mumpreneur are among the new words which have entered the latest edition of a major dictionary. Around 70 fresh terms from the fields of politics, technology, fashion and contemporary culture are included in the 11th edition of the Collins English Dictionary which is published today (6th October 2011).
Descriptions of modern lifestyle are reflected in terms such as “mumpreneur”, a woman who combines running a business with looking after her children, and “alarm clock Briton”, a worker on a moderate income whose daily routine involves preparing children for school and going out to work.
On the romance front, a new phrase is “cuddle class”, a category of airline ticket in which two passengers purchase an additional seat so that they can recline together.
The fashion world has inspired the word “mankle” for a man’s bare ankle; “mamil”, a middle-aged man in Lycra; and “mullet dress”, a woman’s skirt cut short at the front but long at the back.
Elaine Higgleton, publishing director for Collins English Dictionaries, said: “I think the dictionary is really showing how British culture is continuing to evolve.
“There’s quite a lot of vocabulary about past times, around fashion, celebrities, TV, culture and popular culture but there’s also the more serious stuff such as Arab Spring and the ongoing financial situation. “It shows what the concerns of society are at the moment.”
Developments in technology are reflected in words such as “frape”, which mixes the words Facebook and rape to refer to the altering of information on a person’s profile on the social networking site without their permission.
Other terms from current affairs include “casino banking”, for bankers who risk losing investors’ money to try to gain maximum profits, and “emberrorist”, meaning an organisation or person who seeks to reveal potentially embarrassing information, often as a political weapon.
