Well, entertaining as I don't doubt the Word of the Day rants are, at the end of my workday today start two weeks of vacation, which - as usual - will be very busy. So I'll finish the week (Friday and Saturday will bring some more nominations, and Sunday I'll pick the Word of the Week again) and after that, two weeks of mostly quietude here. After that, I'll return again, of course. Someone needs to scrutinize the expansion of this language after all, and the critical eye of today's journalism can clearly not be trusted.
Want today's proof ? Ok, let's go:
- 'ziektejaar' (illness year). Yep, another article about all the cut-backs in our social securities systems. It's bad enough that the working environments, the work itself, bad decisions by government and companies, etc. are making a lot of people ill enough to be out of the rat race for over a year, but to actually invent a word to call such a year is a clear indication that this society has had its own share of ziektejaren...
- 'haltestopknop' (bus stop stop button). The plan itself isn't bad: to install buttons on bus stops, so that if they're poorly lit and the bus driver won't notice people waiting there, they can press the button and the bus driver gets a signal that there's more at that stop than meets the eye. Of course, passengers have been saying something like this should exist, for decades, but hey, at least they're now prototyping it. The only problem I have with this word is that the buses themselves also have buttons inside, and you could just as easily call *those* 'haltestopknop'. I'm sure a more creative word - or term ! Why does everything have to be a whole new word these days ?? - can be found to describe it better.. or am I being naive ?
- 'mee-moeders' (co-mothers ? I'm really not sure how to translate this best). Lesbian couples who have a child can have a 'real' mother (and by this I mean a biological mother, I'm not passing any judgement, mind you) but then there's another woman in that same relationship. And this is the best word they could come up with for that. 'Aww, baby just said his first word... co-mommy !'
- 'speelgevoel' (gameplay feeling/sensation). I don't know, the word just looks awkward. Speelgevoel. Even to someone who's Dutch, this must look silly. One can also debate on its meaning when used out of context. I think the word lacks a lot of clarity.
- 'grotestedencampagne' (big city campaign). One of our banks, Rabobank, has decided on more strategic presence in the bigger cities. So they're launching a marketing campaing specifically aimed at those. Well, will we ever use this word again after this campaign is out of the headlines ? Will this become a specific product marketing agencies will offer their clients ? I doubt it. This is yet another tendencious one-hit-word and I'm against it. Split it up into two or three words, like the English equivalent, please.
- 'Maagdenhuisbezetter' (Maagdenhuis occupant). I know I've nominated 'Maagdenhuisbezetters' before (just nine days ago), but come on folks, this is a student who occupied an educational building in protest to educational decisions made by the government. If this was the sixties or seventies, there would not have been created a special word for him. It'd be everyday news, a small article on one of the last pages of the newspaper. People would probably not notice it, and the ones who would, would shake their heads and think 'those students again'. Simply because it worries me how 'special' it seems to be these days when an actual protest against government policies is made, I'm nominating it. We don't need this word, we need people to think and speak up ! Enough to make it an everyday occurance - as long as the government keeps making decisions that are bad for us or that go against what we, the people want. Which, well, let's face it, will probably be forever. Damn you apathy !
- 'trajectcontrolesysteem' (section check system). It's an electronic system used to er, check something. On a section. Of the highway. This is all the meaning of the word I could get from the context. Do you now know what it is used for ? I don't.
- 'hotelachtiger' (hotel-like). A hospital in Nijmegen is prototyping a roomservice for their patients, which stems from, as they claim, the way hospitals are becoming more and more like hotels. I don't know - I think hotels still envy our hospitals for their huge waiting lists and how they can get away with all kinds of incompetence. I bet hotels are hoping they could be more hospital-like.
- 'streektaalconcerten' (local dialect concerts). Come ON !! Does this mean we now also need all kinds of concerts, like 'english language concerts', 'hard to understand words concerts', 'no words at all concerts', .... ???
I'll admit it's a tougher pick than it was the past few days. But the Word of the Day is 'Maagdenhuisbezetter' - because it was worth nominating again, and because it's the word that got the longst rant out of me today.
No comments:
Post a Comment