It's been a good week for … zyzzyva
MOVE over zythum, zyzzyva is the new kid in town. That's not a Spice Girls catchphrase (you're thinking of zig-a-zig-ah) but rather a genus of South American weevils found on or near palm trees.
Zyzzyva has ousted zythum (a noun describing an ancient Egyptian malt beer) for the honour of becoming the last word among roughly 826,000 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary.
It is among 1,200 new words, phrases and senses to be added in the latest update with others including "woke", an adjective that means being alert to injustice in society, especially racism.
TV fans will be pleased to hear that "thing" is now a thing. A new usage of thing is often employed in questions conveying surprise or incredulity such as "How can that be a thing?" and has been traced back to an early episode of The West Wing.
Colloquialisms and slang words to enter the dictionary include "swimmer" (sperm), "son of a bachelor" (a euphemistic alternative to "son of a bitch") and "to have a canary" (lose one's composure).
Although my favourite addition to the Oxford English Dictionary ranks has to be that brilliant Scottish expression for noting temperatures of extreme cold: Baltic.
Yes, Baltic is officially a thing.
It's been a bad week for … fashion
What do you buy the fashion diva who has everything? A £140 Prada paperclip, apparently.
Marketed as a "paperclip-shaped money clip", the sterling silver design measures just 6cm in length with the only real bling being a miniscule Prada logo embossed along one edge.
I don't know about you but for £140 I would be expecting said paperclip to come with at least £139 crisp bank notes tucked inside.
Although even that seems like a false economy because the other day I got a perfectly good box of 200 paperclips for a quid in the pound shop.
The great paperclip debacle comes hot on the heels of Balenciaga's £1,600 bag that looked uncannily similar to Ikea's trademark blue 40p Frakta tote.
No doubt the great overlord of The Emperor's New Clothes fashion department is laughing up his or her sleeve at this latest cunning heist. A fool and his money are soon parted, as the old adage goes.
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