Beach’s Dictionary
George Orwell once wrote that there should be a committee of the great and good tasked with creating new words. Well, Beach has decided to save the tax-payer some money and, with the help of his readers, he is doing it free of charge. To date, the collective is minting a new word a month – give or take.
New Words
At-Generation/@-generation: The first teenage generation to use email: 1985-2005. This is Dray’s – to whom thanks. ‘Yours is the @generation, Wayne: doomed to demonmailer, phishing and e.drift [see below]!’
Book Larks: Miscellaneous items – letters from Stephen Spender, unused condoms, birth certificates, Italian lire… – found in second-hand books. Chris F. came up with the brilliant, inspired ‘book larks‘ as in ‘Cor, Jim, head down, there’s a book lark in here!’
E.Drift: The way that unanswered emails slide, day by day, down the page and then eventually disappear out of sight and are forgotten. Jamie the Gun suggested E.drift that, after some controversy, edged out e.slippage. ‘Sorry, Maggy, I forgot to send in the tax bill: a bad case of E.drift’.
Definitions in Search of a Word
(i) The natural association of rudeness and inefficiency found in the majority (a European perspective?) of those who serve the general public out of offices. Preferably this word would have a positive flagging up the corresponding marriage of politeness and efficiency in the minority.
(ii) A generation name for the first teenage generation to use Facebook and other Social Network Sites – compare to @generation above.
(iii) The frustration caused by not finding a short, half-remembered reference in a book.
