Overloop !

My oldest and best friend Tom used to attempt to teach me how to program in Basic when we were young (age 13 or 14 or thereabouts, and yes, I realise nowadays the average three year old can outcode the likes of me in practically any computer language, but back then it was still semi-unusual to have these kinds of things as a hobby) and because my computer was a piece of crap without a harddrive and using the famous 5 1/4 inch floppies, I had to use a really light version of quickBasic, and the only one we had handy was a Dutch translated version. Every time you caused some kind of overflow it would simply say 'overflow' without additional information, but to make matters worse, the translater changed this into 'overloop'. Although technically correct ('overlopen' can mean 'overflow' and in that sense was correctly used) no one ever used, nor uses, the word 'overloop' in common language. There simply is no real noun of that verb in Dutch. Which, if you think about it, is kind of strange, considering the amounts of water my people have had to battle througout the centuries.

In any case, the word popped into my head today. Because by Jove, the newspapers are putting in a major effort to change my search for the Word of the Day from a difficult search to a difficult choice. I have a big lineup for today, and after about an hour of underlining things in the newspapers, I decided to stop and call it a day, being fairly certain that there's an absolute gem in this list somewhere.
And now I'm facing the task of serving you ALL the words I've found. It looks like it will be a strenuous task, so I am simply publishing this announcement now, and will update it with the full list later.

Just to let you all know to brace yourselves. Check back in a while.

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Update ! Here goes, wish me luck:

- first of all, I'd like to tip my hat to Peter Breedveld who coined the word 'waspoederdozenstriptekenaar' on the Stripliefhebbersforum. He's apparently planning to suggest the word to the editors of NRC, so there's a good chance it'll be in the papers tomorrow. It means 'laundry detergent box comic artist' and it refers to the 'Suske & Wiske' comics. They're big news right now in the Dutch / Belgian comics scene, because the Vandersteen Studio leader was sacked in what seems to be a very spin-doctored story of what kind of decision lead to this. Everyone's trying to guess and figure out what really happened, and Peter's word refers to the person who will be taking over the job. 'Suske & Wiske' also spawned a bunch of commercial productions, amongst which many special albums created solely as free presents with certain brands of laundry detergent in order to boost their sales. Obviously us comic snobs consider these commercial products as highly inferior even to the - IMHO - more and more unimpressive main series. In short: the word is definately not a compliment.

- From another big story illustrating our current government ass-raping the underprivileged and chucking the socialist nature of our society out the window:

* 'armoedeval' (poverty fall ? Or is it poverty trap ? I can't figure out a good translation of this word from the context, which makes the lack of clarity surrounding this word pretty evident) which is used to label the fact that in the newly proposed approach to unemployment and such, the really poor will not be stimulated to try and find work because they'll lose government support funds;
* 'rondpompstaat' (circulation pump state), which is a label attached to the current system and suggests that all the government funding put into solving unemployment and poverty is just going around in circles. It could just be me, but isn't the essence of a good economy that the money circulates ?

- 'Maagdenhuisbezetters' (Maagdenhuis occupants) -- another media hype word that will server no purpose once the students quit occupying the so called Maagdenhuis in a protest against government decisions in the field of education (you may have noticed from my reports that the government here is not making many friends amongst its citizens). Another gem from that story came from Sp!ts, who decided that 'vijfeneenhalfjaar' (five and a half years) apparently would serve a useful addition to the Dutch language as one word.
- 'internetbureau' (no translation required methinks) -- I'll admit, a weak candidate, but I assure you the word does not exist in the dictionary as one word ! Besides, 'bureau' can also mean desk (in all its meanings), so what exactly does this word mean if you see it out of context ? It's a fair nomination because it will not help making the Dutch language less confusing.
- 'ziekenhuisbacterie' (hospital bacterium) -- media-hype label surrounding the MRSA microbe which is multi-resistant, but now that the media reports it can also survive *outside* hospitals, the label really doesn't make any sense anymore. Lose it !
- From a big story about announced changes in the famous Dolfinarium:

* 'zeedierenleven' (marine animal life) -- we don't need to cram this into one word, folks.
* 'zeedierenentertainmentpark' (marine animal theme park) -- same comment, and in the Dutch version one can even argue about its meaning: are the visitors entertained because of the marine life, or is the marine life being entertained ? (A valid question, I'm beginning to realise as I continue to follow the news)

- From some stories about terrorist attacks througout the world.. I'm grouping these because they're all so damn similar:

* 'bomschoeman' (bomb shoe man) -- do I need to explain this one ? You know what qualities I'm looking for in words by now, right ?
* 'autobomaanslag' (car bomb attack) -- another very clear candidate, especially since it was a suicide attack using a car rigged with explosives. In Dutch, that would be 'zelfmoordaanslag met een auto uitgerust met explosieven'. Yes, it looks long, but don't fear change. Just say it like *that* next time. Try it. You'll feel better.
* 'bomauto' (bomb car) -- this is the beforementioned car rigged with explosives. We really needed this all-new word, didn't we ?

- 'boerenkorting' (farmer discount) -- this refers to a discount given to farmers who go to the upcoming (30 year anniversary) concert of Normaal, out of solidarity, because the band itself also consists of farmers. But as one whole word ? Couldn't we just have gone for 'korting voor boeren' (discount for farmers) ? Is there really *that* little space in the newspaper that you must compress this term ? Because from where I'm standing, there's plenty of other rubbish you could have chucked out instead.
- 'kourecord' (cold record) -- this is from a short story that in the German Alpes apparently past Sunday night was the coldest night in over a century. The word looks silly, and doesn't exist in the dictionary. Also, with global warming going on, I'm not entirely certain how many more 'cold records' we will see. It's nothing that couldn't have been said with two loose words, so I'm adding it to this list.
- I'm tempted to nominate 'extremisme' because of a column in the Metro by Kor Goutbeek who clearly explains how the meaning of this word is rapidly changing due to current events and he admirably argues to take the official meaning into account more.
- From a story about charity funds for the Third World come these words, that all look valid but do not exist in the dictionary: 'hulpgelden' (aid funds), 'armoedebestrijding' (fight against poverty), 'donorlievelingen' (donor favourites), 'prestigeobjecten' (prestige objects) and 'hulpontvangend' (aid receiving).
- From an article about a new online soap opera aimed at gay youth: 'homojongerensoap' (gay youth soap opera), 'homojongerenserie' (gay youth series), 'homojongerenstichting' (gay youth foundation) -- don't get me wrong, I'm not some gay basher, but does the gay community really require all these new words ?
- Tech words from several pages of tech news ! 'wappagina' (internet page that is WAP-enabled), 'prepaytelefoon' (prepay phone), 'smartphones' (...), 'krakersgroep' (in the context used as a group performing a DDOS-attack), 'computeraanval' (computer attack, here of course referring to the forementioned DDOS-attack), and 'snufjeshaters' (people who hate loads of extra features on equiptment).
- 'fietsvakantietouroperator' (cycle holiday tour operator).
- 'dopingperikelen' (sports narcotics vicissitudes).

Good grief.. LOOK at this list ! And there's still, no doubt, plenty of words I missed...

Ok, I now need to think about which of these will become the Word of the Day. Will update in another while again.

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Update two: I've thought it through (you kind of have to when you have to choose between thirty-one words !) and considering length, meaning, rarity, limited target audience, and my perogative as sole dictator of anything that happens on this blog, the Word of the Day is: 'waspoederdozenstriptekenaar' ! (Congratulations, Peter !)

I really hope tomorrow's newspapers will be slightly less ambitious in their attempts to expand the Dutch vocabulary.