Heddwen Newton - neologisms & slang

Gewoon 'dochmatisch'. Maar ik denk dat ik toch dacht dat het Nederlands van het Engels kwam.

I didn't know that, that's brilliant!

I read Asterix in Dutch, and the dog had his French name "Idefix". Turns out this is a pun on "idée fixe", making "Dogmatix" a brilliant translation!

So now I'm wondering if my reasoning was my own, or if I perhaps once knew about "Dogmatix" but just forgot...

I thought the word "dogmatic" was a combination of "dog" and "automatic". Like a persistent and not very clever dog who is following a certain idea like an unstoppable robot.

I just looked it up. It comes from the word "dogma".

OMG, of course it does. 🤦‍♀️😂

Great summary for those of us that couldn't be there, thanks!

Source: No More Marking newsletter There are serious academics who are proposing that one of the reasons people are having less sex is because the online world is so compelling and addictive. If online content is so addictive that it can lead to adults having less sex, it’s probably fair to speculate that it will lead to kids studying less algebra.

In her latest newsletter, Daisy Christodoulou makes the point that educational apps can never compete with apps that have "hold the user's attention" as their sole purpose.

The following excerpt made me LOL

Horizontal bar graph with the title "Which of the following slang terms have you heard used a lot in the past two months?" (The question was specified to be about young people; so people over the age of 25 were asked to answer according to what they heard from their children/ students etc) The answers show that "Low key" and "Bruh/Bro" were most popular in January & February 2025, with around 73% of respondents saying they had heard these a lot. Rizz, Cringe, Slay, Brainrot, Sigma, Yapping and Skibidi were also popular. Heard very rarely were Cheugy, Fugazy and Basic. Here are all the percentages, courtesy of R: "Low key-74.2%, Bruh / Bro-73.4%, Rizz-68.8%, Cringe-66.4%, Slay-63.3%, Brainrot-60.2%, Sigma-57.8%, Yapping-56.2%, Skibidi-55.5%, GOAT-52.3%, Real-47.7%, Chat-46.9%, Aura-45.3%, Fire-45.3%, I love that for you-44.5%, Sus-44.5%, W-43.8%, Ate-43%, Era-43%, No cap-43%, Cap-42.2%, Mood-42.2%, Main character energy-40.6%, Gyat-39.8%, Baddie-37.5%, Simp-37.5%, Type shit-37.5%, High key-36.7%, Lit-36.7%, Mewing-35.9%, On God-33.6%, Say less-33.6%, Finna-30.5%, Fit (adj)-30.5%, Demure-29.7%, Drip-28.9%, Bussin-27.3%, It altered my brain chemistry-25%, Bop-23.4%, Fit-23.4%, Ahh-22.7%, Ohio-16.4%, Fanum tax-15.6%, Huzz-14.1%, Baka-13.3%, Based-11.7%, Poggers-10.2%, Cheugy-4.7%, Fugazy-1.6%, Basic-0.8%"

I did a pilot study for longitudinal slang research in February (128 respondents). Got discouraged because of methodological issues (too much slang!). Have now had an idea how to address these issues. Feeling encouraged again!

Also: having ChatGPT help you with R is FIRE.

The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia is now on sale in the UK. It’s pretty sweet seeing something that has consumed so much of your life sitting in Waterstones like it’s always belonged there… Thank you @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social.
If words are your jam, it’ll make you happy.
shorturl.at/5TwQI

Is This the End of the Dictionary? Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful

Merriam survives on snarky posts, games, and sharper SEO. With U.S. lexicographers down from about 200 to under 50, this piece urges treating dictionaries as public goods amid fights over words like insurrection and woke.

By @stefanfatsis.bsky.social in @theatlantic.com

buff.ly/ycOMo0K

Screenshot from Urban Dictionary definition for "Urban Dictionary Likes and Dislikes" They removed it because this website is now run by idiotic cunts apparently User1: Why can't I see the Urban Dictionary Likes and Dislikes? User2: Yeah what's up with the website, is it a bug? User3: No, this website has just gone to shit User1 and User2: Aw fuck that sucks, now it's unusable by KeepTheDamnSocksOn September 20, 2025 Link: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Urban%20Dictionary%20Likes%20and%20Dislikes

From around late July 2025, Urban Dictionary no longer shows an upvote/downvote count. Nobody knows why. It might just be a bug, or it may have been intentional.

The missing counts make the site unusable for slang researchers like me :-(

Three comments in one column. They are all commenting on this article: https://englishinprogress.net/gen-z-slang/vro-instead-of-bro/ This was really informative! I didnt know the origins of vro, and its interesting to see how it went from a possible XXXTentacion acronym to a meme. The Spanish connection was a fun thought, though ultimately incorrect. Great breakdown! This article is really fascinating! It dives deep into the origins of vro, exploring its connections to XXXTentacion, urban slang, and even a meme. I appreciate how the author examines various theories and provides context. Its cool to see how language evolves. This was a really interesting read! I never knew the origins of vro, and its fascinating to see how it evolved from XXXTentacions music to a popular meme. The explanations and historical context made it engaging.

Another nail in the coffin of internet blogging...

Spam comments have existed for many years, and so have spam filters.

But now spammers are using AI to read the blog post and write relevant comments, and my spam filter lets them through, meaning I have to sift through them manually.

Caught or seen This time: caught dead, China unbound, British-American lexical relations and links to clink

My September newsletter is out now, with links to lots of good stuff and a couple of linguisticky pics from my trip to Guangzhou:

open.substack.com/pub/lynnegui...

Is This the End of the Dictionary? Obsolete (adj.): no longer in use or no longer useful

Stefan Fatsis on the current state of American lexicography www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Super interesting, thanks so much!

Can you give me an example? Have you been doing it long, or is it relatively new?

XKCD from 20/09/25 https://xkcd.com/3143/ Two stick figures walking. One says: That movie was so good, maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark? The other one says: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics Charlie's Angels colon: full throttle period. Paragraph break. I question your judgement period. Subscript: When people say "question mark" out loud as a rhetorical device, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too.

XKCD from 20 Sep 25.

Is this a thing? I've never heard it, or heard anyone talk about it.

Word of the week: Vibe coding It's a whole mood.

Vibe coding, with cites from @harrymccracken.com @carlyayres.com @joanwestenberg.com

open.substack.com/pub/fritinan...

Cod digits and striped equids: new book celebrates media staple ‘the second mention’ Married monographers have collated sometimes absurd word choices through which journalists avoid repetition

Cod digits? Striped equids? Dam-building rodents? Elongated yellow fruit?

A new book about second mentions dives deep into those supposedly elegant variations and many others.

www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

treasure chest, trombone, avalanche, bigfoot, bulging face, bust up cloud, orca

Happy Unicode 17.0 Day!

Includes seven new emoji that are rolling out on your phones and computers in the coming year:

treasure chest, trombone, avalanche, big foot, bulging face, fight cloud, orca

@jenniferdaniel.bsky.social has the lowdown:
jenniferdaniel.substack.com/p/tomorrows-...

We Need To Talk About Sloppers The best ever death metal bot out of Denton

Slopper: “A person who uses ChatGPT to do everything for them.” www.todayintabs.com/p/we-need-to... | via @americandialect.org listserv

I posted that Americans call lecterns podiums and it turns out there's an entire account devoted to correcting people who say podium and I'm like

1) oh dear, prescriptivism

But also

2) this is utterly hilarious

After years of teaching my students about the differences between American and British English, today I learned one that was completely new to me:

Americans call a 'lectern' a 'podium'!

I have heard it used many times, and have simply always misunderstood it as the thing they were standing on!

Column | What are the most American and most British words? Is American English really that different than its British ancestor? And if so, what words truly separate the American from the Brit? The Department of Data is on the case.

According to this my book is “stellar“ and I am possibly the worlds “most devoted chronicler” of British and American English differences.

I’ll take it. 😉

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

fly me to the tip This time: no tipping no posting no dumping, plus things to click and do!

It's my August newsletter: packed full of languagey, booky, mappy things to read, do, and think about.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

That was short but sweet! If you want to hear Tony talking more about some of this new generation of 'influencer' words, have a listen to this episode of @lexispodcast.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/3fUW...

‘Skibidi’, ‘delulu’ and ‘tradwife’ among words added to Cambridge Dictionary Lexicographers give nod to TikTok generation’s enduring influence on English language with latest additions

I'm on BBC News Now shortly talking about the 'new' words that have been added to the Cambridge Dictionary [and why we need to be careful calling them 'new'].

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Word of the week: Treatler Indulgences with an unexpected cost.

Word of the week: Treatler.

Whether you enjoy your Little Treat™ or complain about it, someone on social media is likely to compare you to Hitler.

fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

Watch out for doomprompting Plus, the surprising scale of AI

New word watch: Doomprompting, "the act of mindlessly or addictively conversing with a chatbot."

Via @grammargirl.bsky.social's terrific "AI Sidequest" newsletter.
ai-sidequest.beehiiv.com/p/watch-out-...

How to use AI audio in Google Docs Plus, LLMs' weird musical taste

Oneshot: In AI, the result you get from a single prompt. Borrowed from (a) gaming (b) drug use.

More useful AI stuff from @grammargirl.bsky.social's "AI Sidequest" newsletter: ai-sidequest.beehiiv.com/p/how-to-use...

What the new dictionary words tell us about the disturbing state of the world Going by lexicon alone, we might have cause for concern, writes Helen Coffey – the zeitgeist language making waves among Gen Alpha paints a troubling picture of what young people are grappling with

And here's another for P2Q3. The first half is a pretty standard rehash of the stories from last week, but it picks up a bit on the discourses as it moves on.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/s...

Column | What are the most American and most British words? Is American English really that different than its British ancestor? And if so, what words truly separate the American from the Brit? The Department of Data is on the case.

Gift link this time (finally found the right button!): "we can use subtitles to rate the out-loud-ness of any English word by comparing its popularity in movies to its popularity in books." - err, sure. That's a thing in corpus linguistics, right? Right?
wapo.st/4oLF7Is