September 25, 2008
The St James Version: Word of Wonder Edition
NEW HOLLYWOOD SLANG
Heche-ing it out: temporary lesbianism for press. As in: “Lindsay is just Heche-ing it out with Samantha. Don’t worry, she’ll go back to Wilmer.”
Hasselbecking: ceaselessly and annoyingly arguing a point, even though you are wrong.
As in: “Stop Hasselbecking me about Lindsay's acting ‘talent.’ She made one good film five years ago. She’s just another…”
…Hacktress: a professional celebrity who continues to float on the A-list, despite making only crap. See also: Gwyneth, Halle, Nicole, Reese, etc etc. Which reminds me of…
Gwyn and bare it: pretend to be a high-minded, serious actress, until it comes time to promote your film – at which point you happily slut out on every red carpet, wearing just a few black Band-Aids, a la Gwynyth Paltrow during her Iron Man junket. As in: “Look Lindsay, I know you don’t want to dress up and go to the Criterion release party for I Know Who Killed Me, but you just have to Gwyn and bare it again….”
– James St James
June 24, 2008
Word of Wonder
Bummerang n. (bum' / e / rang) Bad karma. John's nasty attitude keeps coming back to bite him in the ass; it's a real bummerang, man.
April 28, 2008
Word of Wonder
Fragible n. (fraj' / e / bl) Flimsy or easily broken item. Before we move that bookcase, we should take the fragibles off the shelves. (t/y Jason)
February 22, 2008
Phrase Of The Day
Phrase: Mend it like Beckham
Meaning: Celebrity plastic surgery package to coincide with the birth of a child. The celebrity mother gets her silicone breast implants removed early in pregnancy to prevent stretching, then when the baby is born (usually whipped out by caesarean at eight months to prevent the mother having to get too fat) new implants are put back, liposuction is done on the arse and thighs, plus a full tummy tuck to get rid of all signs of pregnancy. The new mother keeps hidden from the public for about ten days while everything heals—which, of course, is not suspicious, as she’s just given birth. Many private hospitals around the world now offer this as part of the birth package. Nursing staff at London’s celebrity-friendly Portland Hospital coined the name for the package which honors one of its earliest adopters, Victoria Beckham.
Usage: Did you see the size of J-Lo? Let's hope she's getting a Mend It Like Beckham.
– Steven Corfe (DoubleTongued via FeltUpByJen)
February 21, 2008
New Word
This week's New Word is fierciocity, coined by Bravo's Andy Cohen to describe the aura of fierceness surrounding Project Runway's Christian, who won last night's 'fan favorite'. Use it in a sentence today, kids.
– Steven Corfe
February 15, 2008
November 9, 2007
Word of Wonder
Kraft Single (krăft sĭng’gəl) n A song, or musical “single,” that has been so overly processed and tinkered with by producers in the studio that the original artist’s voice is barely recognizable. Much like an actual slice of Kraft American Cheese wrapped in cellophane plastic, which has been overly processed and dyed at the cheese making factory. (BWE)
January 22, 2007
Word of Wonder
red carpet – ('red 'kär-pet) n. 1. firecrotch; crimson pubic hair. 2. a red strip placed on the ground for high-ranking dignitaries to walk on. Most celebrity blogs these days prefer the red carpet shots.
January 8, 2007
Word of Wonder
The American Dialect Society has announced its 2006 Word of the Year and list of candidates. The Society voted Plutoed as the winning word. To Pluto is to demote or devalue someone or something, as the International Astronomical Union did last year when it decided Pluto would no longer be a planet. Other words under consideration included murse (a man's purse), surge (increase in troops), and prohibited liquids (fluids not permitted on airplanes; bodily excretions of a disgusting nature). Read the entire list here.
October 26, 2006
Word of Wonder
TiNo - (tee'-no) n. An unwatched television program saved on a TiVo or other personal video recorder; v. To not watch a television program saved on a TiVo or other PVR. Studio 60? That's a TiNo; I've been told I was right to TiNo Desperate Housewives this season. (Source)
June 19, 2006
Word of Wonder
dramadary - (drah'-ma-deh'-ree) n. An actor who manages to eke out a decent living with very few gigs.
March 31, 2006
Word of Wonder
besticide - (bes-tuh-side) n. The elimination of all those arbitrary end-of-year "best" lists.
February 21, 2006
Word of Wonder
imperitif - (im-pair-uh-teef) n. A minor request just before a major command. You'll sit, then you'll eat.
Oscaroon - (os-kuh-roon) n. A person nominated for Academy Awards in two or more categories in one year. Oscaroon George Clooney will probably be disappointed threefold on March 5.
February 8, 2006
January 24, 2006
Word
Techsture (tex'-chur) n. - The enhancement or manipulation of an image by a technician, as in This photo could use some techsture; also, the image itself. See, photoshop.
January 17, 2006
Year of the Word
Podcast, a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program made available on the Internet for downloading to an iPod, was the word of 2005, according to the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary, and will be added to its next online update and then to the print edition later this year. Other words in contention for the title were rootkit, squick, sudoku, bird flu, lifehack, reggaeton, trans fat, chess boxing, court stripping, tablescape, and truthiness, which we like to think won Miss Congeniality. New acronyms included ICE (in case of emergency), IDP (internally displaced person), and IED (improvised explosive device). Oh, and there's persistent vegetative state, which we're slipping into right now.
December 8, 2005
Word of Wonder
Podcast: A digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player.
Not really a new word to anyone who's visited a blog over the last year, but it's new to the New Oxford American Dictionary, which dubs it the Word of the Year and will add it to its online edition next year. We're told the word is a hybrid of "iPod" and "broadcasting." Really? Other words considered but not made of Word of the Year mettle were lifehack, rootkit, bird flu, sudoku, and trans fat.
Of course, "podcast" already appears in the revised edition of the massive Oxford English Dictionary. Says OED's project editor of English dictionaries and thesauruses, "We do not release a 'word of the year' but I would say that 'podcast' is an interesting choice. This time last year very few had heard of it. It's quite amazing how quickly it has become established. High-tech terms tend to enter quite quickly so long as they are not the preserve of the technical press." Spoken like a project editor of English dictionaries and thesauruses.
December 6, 2005
November 16, 2005
Word of Wonder
Remember "metrosexual," the word that delighted the news media for about 10 minutes in 2003? Now there's another meaningless term for you to not give a shit about! The new ideal, according to veteran trend-spotting promoters Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia, and Ann O'Reilly, as described in their new book, The Future of Men, is ubersexuality. The word means a "return to the positive characteristics of the Real Man of yesteryear (strong, resolute, fair)," according to the writers, who helped spread the word on metrosexuality in the first place. (Book Slut via SFGate or vice versa)
November 14, 2005
Word of Wonder
Faketion: Tim Hall, cofounder and editor of the Undie Press coins and defines the word as any literary work that is concerned primarily with bringing attention to its author, rather than any change it might make or impact it might have in the reader, and cites fake memoirs (Judy Blunt's infamous typewriter-smashing scene), fake novels (The Bellybutton Fiasco), as well as a fake award named after a fake writer (the McSweeney's August Van Zorn prize), which was won by a friend of the judges who submitted under a fake name.
For more on the above, the death of fiction, a fake literary movement, and the JT LeRoy hoax, go here.
October 31, 2005
Word of Wonder
Exasperanto: What the other person starts to speak when the cellphone connection breaks up.
Glibberish: The language of TV pundits, news anchors, and Camille Paglia.
October 24, 2005
Word of Wonder
Exercism: A ritual in which the malign influence of a personal trainer is expelled, usually through intervention or drugs.
October 17, 2005
Word of Wonder
Cocktini: An intoxicating beverage of vodka, vermouth, and soda.
Lesbiennale: That time, usually every two years or so, when a bored woman will cut her hair short and dabble in the artsy gay lifestyle.
October 10, 2005
Word of Wonder
Coming to terms with office life.
Blamestorming: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed and who was responsible
Seagull manager: A higher-up who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps all over everything, then leaves
Assmosis: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing the bosses butt rather than by working hard
Generica: Features of the North American landscape, such as fast food joints, strip malls, subdivisions, that are exactly the same no matter where one is
404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found" (meaning that the requested document, like the person's brain, could not be located)
Mouse potato: The wired generation's answer to the couch potato
Woofys: Well Off Older Folk
Cube farm: An office filled with cubicles
Prairie dogging: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm and people pop their heads up over the walls to see what's going on
Crop dusting: Surreptitious flatulence while passing thru a cube farm, or any other public place, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust (often sets off prairie dogging)
July 25, 2005
Word
In the 1972 British black comedy, The Ruling Class, Peter O'Toole, as the deranged 14th Earl of Gurney (who thinks he's Christ, is cured, then becomes Jack the Ripper), coins the word "insinnuendo," a delightful hybrid of insinuation and innuendo, which we've taken to mean an extreme version of artful suggestion.
July 5, 2005
Word
A new word and a T-shirt to match. MissWitt designs has come up with "Cruisazy," an adjective and a noun meaning to be like Tom Cruise, to act like him, and/or to know something completely that others do not. We like to think that was already called Tomfoolery, but whatever.
April 22, 2005
It's Called Infomania
A study conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry for Hewlett Packard found that people are becoming addicted to email, phone calls, and text-messaging. We knew that. But the more interesting discovery is that those people who are constantly distracted by all that technology had a 10-point drop in their IQs, which is more than twice what happens to pot smokers. We get ragged on all the time here for not responding immediately (or at all) to email from on high, but the study indicates that workers who always have to break away from what they're doing to answer incoming email or text messages suffer mental effects akin to losing a night's sleep. So, what you. . . Oh, we have to answer this email, so read more about it at BBC News.
April 4, 2005
What's the Good Word?
The Lake Superior State University in Michigan has an annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness . And yes, this year's list (the 30th) includes the word "blog." Actually, the list also banishes phrases, such as "You're fired," "enemy combatant," and "erectile dysfunction." (lssu.edu)
ZERO PERCENT APR FINANCING – sending a dollar to do a nickel’s worth of work. “They could just say ‘no interest.’" -- Michael Hehn, Ferrysburg, Mich.
BODY WASH – “Also known as ‘soap.’” -- Ray Hill, Jackson, Mich.
SALE EVENT – “Year-end sales are now ‘sales events.’ Now most have shortened it to ‘event.’ Does the sale exist any longer? ‘Hey, nice new Chevy, Bob!’ ‘Thanks, it was on event at the dealer last week.’” – Allan Dregseth, Fargo, ND.
February 17, 2005
What's the Good Word?
Just came back from Starbucks on one of the Scientology corners
of Hollywood Boulevard. Jeez, they have their own language. Starbucks, we mean, not Scientology. According to the Starbucks Glossary, posted recently on banterist.com, most of us WOW employees are "antiventis" because we reject the lingo used to establish what size coffee we want, and ask instead for small, medium, or large, because we live in America. And we often experience a "delait" waiting to use the milk thermos. There are more terms.
February 11, 2005
What's the Good Word?
We were going to use some Valentine's Day words from one of Daily Candy's Lexicon series, but they were. . . not so good. So we went instead with this series. It's really hard coming up with new words. In fact, we're almost beginning to appreciate "bling" when it was still "bling-bling."
nontourage n. A group of undesirable sycophants. ("The party was fun until Justin showed up with his nontourage.")
foxymoron n. One who is incredibly dumb but incredibly cute, who simultaneously attracts and repels. ("I'm so ashamed. I hooked up with that foxymoron last night.")
GHaG n. Acronym. Girl-Hating Girl. The one whose only friends are guys.
hobeau n. A less-than-hygienic boyfriend. ("Better open the window. Here come Gloria and her hobeau.")
January 31, 2005
What's the Good Word?
While the swag was flying at Sundance again this year, people were actually doing some talking other than, "Which way to Fred Segal?" And some new words were coined and bandied about in coversation. Of course, typically, no fewer than four of the new words are swag related. Drum roll, please.
High-attitude sickness – In Park City the air has been replaced by buzz as the oxygen of choice. Breathing pure buzz makes you squawk like Donald Duck and flap about. The buzz-starved, on the other hand, tend to become lethargic and morose. Serious loss of self-esteem may follow unless you immediately relocate to lower ground.
Glow job – Smothering someone with entirely undeserved praise in the hope it will get you somewhere better than where you are right now.
Slossed – As in "you've been slossed," coined in the New York Times article after the name of the legal capo who heads Cinetic and who has a virtual monopoly on films at Sundance. There are two ways of being slossed – either as an executive overpaying for a film, or as some sad sack of a filmmaker sitting in a condo waiting for a return phone call from his sales agent that will never come because his film doesn't have buzz.
Brandance – The brand name hocus pocus taking over the Sundance film
festival, via thejasoncalacanisweblog.
Jettasexuals – The stars, jurists, and filmmakers whisked around in Volkswagen's fleet of cars. Jettas mostly, but for VVIPS and premieres the occasional Phaeton.
The Village – Well, it's not really a new word, but it takes on a sinister new meaning at the film fest, where The Village is the name for a cluster of swag houses handing out free stuff to stars. Of course The Village is also the name of M Night Shyamalan's film. But this spectacle is infinitely more frightening.
Swagqueen – Those who rank top tier and can get anything they want – and take it, even though they neither need it nor want it and could so easily afford it. Marie Antoinettelike, they totter down the steps at The Village carrying more bags than they can carry.
Swaghags – Orcs in deceptively human form who jealously guard the mountains of free stuff. They reserve their fang-bearing smiles for celebrities and ignore everyone else, except to scowl or snarl at them should they be so foolish as to think those Uggs are for them.
Swagabees – Publicists, personal assistants, new best friends! Entourage-ists who hover around A-listers, picking up such swag crumbs as beanies, lip balm, and tsunami aid relief T-shirts in children's sizes. They are also useful for carrying the bags to the swagon.
Swagon – Four-wheeled conveyance used to haul all the booty away. Interesting fact: A Phaeton had to be despatched to the outlets to purchase three suitcases to hold all the swag that Hobbit Sean Astin had been given.
January 13, 2005
What's the Good Word?
Galias is what gays assume when they try to keep their homosexual inclination in the closet. At one time, teens used galiases to put off telling their parents they were queer. Not so much anymore. Now, using a galias is more common with actors who write, direct, and act in biopics, and with the occasional American Idol runner-up. If you can't decipher who we were just referring to, you might be filled with anonymosity, which is the frustrating anger you sometimes feel toward gossip columnists who use really obscure blind items.
December 16, 2004
New Word of the Week
Here are enough new words to last at least through the early months of 2005, if not a lifetime. For its Style Invitational section recently, the Washington Post asked its readers to take a word from the dictionary, change it by adding, subtracting, or substituting one letter, then supplying a new definition. These are the winners.
Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who
doesn't get it.
Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.
Karmageddon: It's like when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like a serious bummer.
Decafalon: The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
Glibido: All talk and no action.
Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole
Thanks, Daniel
December 9, 2004
New Word of the Week
This week, we steal from lacomfidential, where old friend Laurie Pike suggests that facho shall be the female equivalent of macho. And we say, Why not? And while we were loitering at lacom, we popped over to its new fashion annex, clotheshoarse, and shoplifted glamourgasm to use here. The word was submitted by Laurie to Fashion Week Daily's contest to find new words to replace tired ones in fashion. It's "the ecstatic feeling you get when paparazzi mistake you for a celebrity, velvet ropes part, and Rose Apodaca Jones asks who designed your outfit," says Laurie. Intoxicating.
December 2, 2004
New Word of the Week
James St. James posits the word "snazzual" this week, which he picked up at lindsayism.com, the blogger at which explains:
I'm going to L.A. on business next month, and it involves attending an event, so I asked my boss, Paul, to advise me on how to dress. "Snazzual," he replied, and a word was born. (It's better than "downtown formal," which always puzzled me because it seems to mean wearing a hot pink prom dress from 1990 with a trucker hat and cowboy boots.)So snazzual it is. It reminds us of the word "casuelle," which we coined some years ago and means basically the same thing. So casuelle it is too. But remember: Whether you go snazzual or casuelle, always accessorize.
November 18, 2004
New Word of the Week
megazine n. (meh-ga-zeen) A fantasy publication that compiles, merges, and purges all the nearly identical tabloids that are vomited out of the Fourth Estate each week (Star, Enquirer, People, InTouch, Us Weekly) into one slim issue, economizing space on coffee tables and newsstands.
November 4, 2004
New Word of the Week
matrimoney (MAT-ri-munny) n. The act or state of marrying into wealth; the comfortable lifestyle of a wealthy married couple. She wanted to live in matrimoney so she proposed to the real estate developer, though she didn't love him.
October 28, 2004
New Word of the Week
In her review of the indie film Primer in the LA Times, Carina Chocano described the invention that the two protagonists turn into a small-potatoes time machine a superconductermajiggy, which we think is a fine word to describe any of those fictional contraptions around which some fantasy films are based.
In that LA Weekly piece about Abe Lincoln's being gay, Doug Ireland called the 16th president a same-sexer, and that seems to us a refreshing and snappy alternative to the tired "gay" and "lesbian" and the once-derogatory, now-ironic (and tired) "fag," "queer," and "homo." Fenton Bailey, in regard to historical characters posthumously being pulled out of the closet, is partial to yestergays.
October 7, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
sublebrity (sub-le'-bra-tee) n. A notable person, such as an actor, musician, or athlete whose star has dimmed considerably; an out-of-fashion personality; a B-lister. Although top-tier stars are fun, the WOW Report loves hearing stories about sublebrities best of all. adj. Unexciting, disappointing, lacking luster. It's strictly a sublebrity premiere when Jenny Jones is the most famous person on the red carpet.
[Ed. note: Credit for the word "sublebrity" goes to Ed Halter, director of the New York Underground Film Festival. In a short essay at PlanetOut.com, Halter explains the phenomenom of lesser stars who live comfortably with a manageable amount of fame.]
We have become accustomed to the small press, the specialty label and the microbrew -- why not a new understanding of our small stars, our specialty celebs, and the micro-famous? I have developed the notion of the sublebrity from working in the twilight world of underground film, where the gaggle of subterranean superstars could simply not be understood by any other taxonomy. The term gained further currency when I began advising a friend of mine to use it in the promotion of her indie film, which features a former '70s sitcom star, a certain '80s MTV VJ, a local tabloid journalist, a notorious East Village lunatic, and the surviving half of Milli Vanilli -- in short, an almost allegorical llustration of sublebrity's many faces.
September 30, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
meetnik (meet'-nik) n. A person who enjoys meetings and administrative events and attends as many as possible. I try to stay away from meetniks for whom getting together is an end in itself.
adminisphere (ad-min'-iss-feer) n. The levels of management where big, impractical, and counterproductive decisions are made. The president and CEO thought it'd be a good idea to replace all 700 of our servers with three mainframes as a way of speeding things up. I'm telling you the bigwigs and the meetniks don't get enough air in that adminisphere.
Courtesy unwords.com
September 23, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
passhole 1. n. An idiot who drives too slowly in the fast lane. 2. A person who has been driving slowly for miles but speeds up the minute one tries to get ahead of him. Because of this passhole, we're going to miss the 7:30 show.
Courtesy unwords.com
September 2, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
pubicle (pu'/ b / kl) n. a small room, stall, or booth separated by walls from a larger room, used for the private sexual activity of one or more persons: The deejay's not much at that club, but it gets really hot in the pubicles.
August 19, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
Today's new word isn't so much a word as a quotidian suffix used insanely, and some insane ones used perfunctorily. And to double the excitement, they feed into the WOW Report's current cult of James and Michael. It's a language invented and used by those two club kids in happier days, before the onset of murder, middle-age, and years of hard-time. It's featured somewhat in James' book, Party Monster nee Disco Bloodbath, and heard briefly in the movie Party Monster, but not in the movie Party Monster. Here's how it works:
1. All words ending in er, or, or re are given the feminine ending ess or ress. Just as waiter becomes waitress, so matter can become mattress, computer computress, and refrigerator refrigeratress. "See you latress!"
2. If a word ends in el, le, or al, it becomes la-da. Pimple would be pimpla-da, principal principla-da, compel compla-da. If it comes at the end of a sentence, -doo is added. "I'd like buttress on my bagla-da-doo."
August 12, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
meanderthal (mee-an'-da-thol) n. Underdeveloped species of man wandering apathetically and sluggishly through shopping complexes or on city streets, usu. sucking Slurpee or fast-food shake through straw: You expect to see them on Hollywood Boulevard, but even Fifth Avenue has become a mecca for meanderthals.
daggy (dag'-ee) adj. 1. Uncool: Oh my God, it's so daggy the way Britney Spears does all her personal business in public. 2. Scruffy: A celebrity like Britney Spears shouldn't allow herself to be photographed looking so daggy. [Australian]
August 5, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
fundit (fun'-dit) n. A scholar or learned person who disseminates witty criticism; a source of humorous expertise: Bill Maher will never be the fundit Jon Stewart is.
July 29, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
galien (gay'-lee-n) n. A homosexual who has taken up residence in a foreign country: Because they seem to be so unapologetically everywhere, galiens are the new Eurotrash; adj. Being gay in a foreign country: Graham Norton has added a dash of galien culture to basic cable, don't you agree?
July 22, 2004
Entirely New Word of the Week
diablogue n. Online intercourse between two or more web journalists; v. tr. To express as or in a diablogue; v. intr. To converse in a diablogue. Fleshbot, Gawker, and the WOW Report had a brief diablogue about chewing gum art.
