Cats and Dogs - a blog for English learners

Occasional tips and tricks to help you learn more than the useless phrase "it's raining cats and dogs", brought to you by Craig Meulen, an English teacher in Germany. (Blog discontinued.)

December 1, 2008

Words of the Year

They call the summer the "silly season", but I think there is a second silly season for anyone who likes languages: the annual series of "Word of the Year" competitions.

To "hypermile" is the winner for Oxford University Press in America. The meaning: to drive in a way that uses the minimum fuel.

Now that's a good idea, so why not have a new word for it? Here's a British factsheet to help you - they don't use the new word! If you are interested in cars and driving, there are a lot of useful factsheets at the Institute of Advanced Motorists - a good way to read something interesting and useful in English.

Another word of the year finalist was "topless meetings". No, that is not something you do on a beach, nor is it something you will find on Page 3 of The Sun or in the BILD newspaper (a German tabloid which is now available in English).

No, 'top'-less meetings are meetings where laptops are banned. So that the people actually listen to and look at each other !

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