Those four buzzwords are among the 13 Most Fun Buzzwords of 2006 as selected by the readers of BuzzWhack.com, home of The Buzzword Dictionary: 1,000 Phrases Translated From Pompous to English.
“Not all buzzwords make you cringe. Some are delightfully colorful, funny and sum up life in today’s workplace,” says John Walston, author of The Buzzword Dictionary and creator of BuzzWhack.com. “And given the way the world’s been going lately, we definitely need something to laugh about.”
Here’s the complete list:
1. blamestorming: A group process where participants analyze a failed project and look for scapegoats other than themselves.
2. Death by Tweakage: When a product or project fails due to unnecessary tinkering or too many last-minute revisions.
3. BMWs: Bitchers, Moaners and Whiners.
4. clockroaches: Employees who spend most of their day watching the clock - instead of doing their jobs
5. plutoed: To be unceremoniously dumped or relegated to a lower position without an adequate reason or explanation.
6. prairie dogging: A modern office phenomenon. Occurs when workers simultaneously pop their heads up out of their cubicles to see what’s going on.
7. carbon-based error: Error caused by a human, not a computer (which we assume would be a silicon-based error).
8. menoporsche: Male menopause. Symptoms include a sudden lack of energy, crankiness and the overpowering urge to buy a Porsche.
9. adminisphere: The upper levels of management where big, impractical, and counterproductive decisions are made.
10. deja poo: The feeling that you’ve stepped in this bull before.
11. bobbleheading: The mass nod of agreement by participants in a meeting to comments made by the boss even though most have no idea what he/she just said.
12. ringtone rage: The violent response by cube mates after hearing your annoying cell phone ringtone for the 15th time.
13. muffin top: The unsightly roll of flesh that spills over the waist of a pair of too-tight jeans
Roars of laughter!
I like all of them, although I can’t pronounce correctly some of them, as they are
coined words. (My dictionaries don’t have them.)
I thought of my husband when I read the explanation of “menoporsche”.
Deja poo sounds “cute”!
Carbon-based error, I admired the person who had created this. So clever!
Bobbleheading - Does this refer to Japanese business world?, I wondered.
If not, it is more interesting since you see a similarity between Western business world and ours in Japan. I thought the same about “prairie dogging”.
I am going to have to not get muffin top on myself. (ha!)
Well, I have one thing that I would like to ask you, Mr. Adam.
About “BMWs: Bitchers, Moaners and Whiners.”,
was there some not-so-good reputations on BMW so that this buzzword were created?
The reason I am curious about it is actually I had a run-in with BMW last year.
That was a terrible time for me and my husband.
I should refrain now from telling you here about what had happened on my former BMW motorbike, as it was a private matter, but I don’t trust them any more.
By the way, do you know any good dictionaries for word’s history?
I visited Dictionary.com and found its encyclopedia helpful, but still I am looking
for another good way or dictionaries or books that will tell me what I want to lean most.
I will give you an example here about “what I want to lean most.”
About the word “sound” for example,
it has mainly 3 meanings, from my understanding ;
One : something like a noise which you can hear.
Two : you are fit.
Three : to measure the depth of water, such as the sea or a river.
It was easy for me to remember Number One and Two.
They seemed to be related with each other.
When you make some sounds, it can be a sign of your being fit.
I laugh at myself and you can too, but that was how I remembered them.
However, I got stuck when I knew that it had one more meaning, and for me it was not
related with Number One and Two at all.
Why does a nose (or a sound) measure the depth of water?
Can you measure the depth of water when you are fit enough?
I didn’t understand it at all then.
Before long, I came to know why.
A friend of mine told me the reason.
Here is what she told me;
Long time ago, they didn’t have any device to measure the depth of water,
so that they would use a stone for it.
They drop the stone in the water. When the stone hits the bottom of the water,
such as the bottom of a river for example, they hear a sound.
They knew how deep it was by how long it took.
So, “sound” was the key word for measuring.
That did make sense to me. That helped me lean the word”sound” more.
Once I asked her where she had met this reason, but she had accidentally
come to know it.
Now I am still looking for books or dictionaries that will tell me about English terms like that way.
Is there anyone who knows of this kind of things?
I’d appreciate you if you would tell me anything on it.
I am now interested in taking a new TOEIC test.
You are teaching at the class for it at your university, Mr.Adam.
(Am I right?)
This is an idea though, may I attend your class once, like a visitor?
Thank you for reading.
Rikako Sasaki