Get hip to chav - Larpers and Shroomers

[Vida J Morkunas]

an interesting article from the Guardian, with a comprehensive list at the
end

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5042297-103690,00.html

Get hip to chav as this year's wizard word

David Ward
Tuesday October 19, 2004

The Guardian

It was hip in 1904, wizard in 1922, pissed off in 1943, sexy in 1956,
awesome in 1961 and ghetto fabulous in 1996. This year it's chav.
Every year has its buzzword ("a word or expression from a particular subject
area that has become fashionable by being used a lot, especially on
television and in the newspapers") and a new book lists 101 of them, one for
every year from 1904 until now.

Some, like tiddly-om-pom-pom (1909), have gone into a tailspin (1917), while
cheerio (1914) has largely been demobbed (1920) from hip (1904)
conversations.

Others live on, having turned up surprisingly early: mobile phone in 1945,
sacred cow in 1910.

The list has been compiled by Susie Dent, a regular on Channel 4's
Countdown, for her new book Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report
(Oxford University Press).

Ms Dent wants to provide a snapshot of today's language and has included
words she admits may not stand the test of time.

"It is taking a fairly detailed look at what is happening to language now
without worrying too much about whether these changes will make an impact in
six months' time," she said.

Chav is the noun which describes young men who wear cheap gold jewellery and
baseball caps and hang around in shopping centres all over Britain.

The word is thought to have come from the mid-19th century Romany word
chavi, meaning child, a explanation that seems unlikely if undeniably cool
(1948). "I think it's a really horrible word, but it is quite a good example
of a word that has burst out on to the scene," Ms Dent commented. "It is
quite surprising in a way. It is one of quite a few social class labels that
have emerged."

The business world breeds buzzwords. You can almost hear David Brent from
The Office drone on about dropping his pants (lowering the price of a
product to close a sale), moose on the table (an issue no one wants to
address in a meeting), and a prawn-sandwich man (a corporate freeloader).

Ms Dent also predicts that suave metrosexual man will be replaced by the
scruffy retrosexual, defined as spending as little time and money as
possible on his appearance.

Buzzword scholarship now has its own website, managed by buzzwhackers
(people "who receive some degree of pleasure in bursting the bubbles of the
pompous") who maintain up-to-date listings.

A larper, by the way, is someone involved in the art of live action
roleplaying and a shroomer experiments with hallucinogenic fungi, whose
effects can sometime be psychedelic (1957) and may be seen as a recreational
alternative to a spliff (1936).

Buzzwords from 1904 to 2004

1904 hip

1905 whizzo

1906 teddy bear

1907 egghead

1908 realpolitik

1909 tiddly-om-pom-pom

1910 sacred cow

1911 gene

1912 blues

1913 celeb

1914 cheerio

1915 civvy street

1916 U-boat

1917 tailspin

1918 ceasefire

1919 ad-lib

1920 demob

1921 pop

1922 wizard

1923 hem-line

1924 lumpenproletariat

1925 avant garde

1926 kitsch

1927 sudden death

1928 Big Apple

1929 sex

1930 drive-in

1931 Mickey Mouse

1932 bagel

1933 dumb down

1934 pesticide

1935 racism

1936 spliff

1937 dunk

1938 cheeseburger

1939 Blitzkrieg

1940 Molotov cocktail

1941 snafu

1942 buzz

1943 pissed off

1944 DNA

1945 mobile phone

1946 megabucks

1947 Wonderbra

1948 cool

1949 Big Brother

1950 brainwashing

1951 fast food

1952 Generation X

1953 hippy

1954 non-U

1955 boogie

1956 sexy

1957 psychedelic

1958 beatnik

1959 cruise missile

1960 cyborg

1961 awesome

1962 bossa nova

1963 peacenik

1964 byte

1965 miniskirt

1966 acid

1967 love-in

1968 It-girl

1969 microchip

1970 hypermarket

1971 green

1972 Watergate

1973 F-word

1974 punk

1975 detox

1976 Trekkie

1977 naff all

1978 trainers

1979 karaoke

1980 power dressing

1981 toyboy

1982 hip-hop

1983 beatbox

1984 double-click

1985 OK yah

1986 mobile

1987 virtual reality

1988 gangsta

1989 latte

1990 applet

1991 hot-desking

1992 URL

1993 having it large

1994 Botox

1995 kitten heels

1996 ghetto fabulous

1997 dot-commer

1998 text message

1999 Google

2000 bling bling

2001 9/11

2002 axis of evil

2003 sex up

2004 chav

· Compiled from Susie Dent's Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report
(Oxford University Press)

www.buzzwhack.com