Well, yesterday was disappointing for us in search of the Word of the Day. I had better hopes for today since the news is interesting in its diversity today, but unfortunately, Metro and Spits are a major letdown today. A colleague suggested the word "buschauffeursontmoetingen" from the Metro column, but that was just a stylistically chosen word and as such a more ironically intended label. When you try to do this deliberately and without intention of the word entering the Dutch language, it's a weak pick, folks.
I also would like to point out to what extreme (for me) I'm going to provide you all the Word of the Day. I mean, I wade through hundreds of articles, scrutinizing them closely, when I could be sleeping during my train ride, and when I could be looking at much more interesting things online. I hope you all appreciate it. Thanks to my new 'hobby', I now have to read about how "women can't drive because of too little exposure to testosteron while in the womb" with all kind of sexist captions underneath the picture (albeit they're humerous and made me chuckle). I had to read about two vietnamese men who caught the bird flu virus from eating raw duck blood pudding (yeah, that made me want to take another bite out of my breakfast, as you can imagine..). I had to read about how this government is planning more and more regulations to control our every move under the flag of 'war against terrorism' (I wonder where they got that idea from ?). About how January 24th apparently is now scientifically proven to be the most depressing day of the year (no explanation given how this was proven, based on what). And lord knows what other bollocks they print in these rags. And it wouldn't have been too bad, if only the articles were FILLED with redundant labels and words, but they weren't - it's almost as if the journalists in question are reading this blog !
So what do we have for today ?
"Speekselen". Apparently from the manual of an anti-flea medicine for cats that a colleague uses (on her cats, obviously). It means 'to salivate' but normally the word 'slijmen' or such would be used - the verb 'speekselen' is made up here to make it sound less gross. It means that if your cat somehow licks this stuff off his own neck, he'll foam like a rabid dog and it's only fair they warn you for this using such a pleasant word. A weak choice for the WotD but considering the context, worth the nomination.
From the articles in 'de Telegraaf' about our country applying the American 'homeland security' plans here (including the colour codes, restrictions on the liberties of 'suspected terrorists', increased security measures in airports, etc.) these measures have been labelled both 'terreurmaatregelen' and 'terreuraanpak'. This could have easily been put in a few words, and the only reason these labels have a very clear meaning right now is because of terrorism having been in the news for so long. I mean, 'terror actions' and 'terror measures' can also easily be applyed to the actions the terrorists themselves are using. Why not just discribe it as 'countermeasures to prevent terrorism' ? Are we really that afraid to tie our tongues in a knot ?
It's my damn blog so I'm nominating both.
Continuing the search. Will be updated later today, possibly with more words, and in any case I'll pick a winner.
Update: I think I hit the jackpot with an article about the current discussion in our government wether or not the European Union should also include Ukraine. The people opposing it are, and I'm translating this pretty much literally, of the opinion that the EU should be a community of common values based on christian/jewish ideals, and that by allowing so many diverse countries with different values, we'd be growing into a community only united by the borders around it. The common values community got labelled 'waardengemeenschap' and the bordered community was labelled, without quotes, as a douane-unie.
Not only is this an odd discussion, where their standpoint seems to border on fascism by wanting to impose one (or, in all honesty, two, but closely related) religions on an entire population, or at least its values, instead of forming one legal system that should allow for any religious beliefs but regulates norms and values we should all hold true to regardless of our convictions.. not only that, but the two labels chosen are perfect examples of the kind of word I'm looking for.
Four nominees. I'll be back later today in this post to pick a winner, if I don't return before then to add some more nominees.
And the winner is... *drum roll*... douane-unie.
No comments:
Post a Comment