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World Wide Web RSS Feeds615-1: Turns of Phrase: Stag-deflation - This new term is yet another consequence of the interesting times we’re living through. Its first known use was by Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University, writing in Forbes Magazine on 29 October. It’s obviously enough a combination of stagflation, persistent high inflation combined with stagnant demand, with deflation, which is being discussed as a likely outcome of the current global financial turmoil. Deflation is thought a greater evil than inflation because it leads to people hoarding money rather than spending it because of expectations that prices will fall. Stag-deflation combines stagnant deflation with recession, leading to a state in which the economy stalls and unemployment rises rapidly, while commodity and goods prices continue to fall. The term has received much attention, as much for its intriguing neologistic flavour as for the recipe for gloom that it foretells. ...Feed Source: www.worldwidewords.org 615-2: Weird Words: Natiform - Resembling or having the form of the buttocks.
Ammon Shea mentions this word in his book Reading the OED, in which he records his experience of spending a year scanning the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover, all 21,730 pages of it. He wrote that he was surprised to learn that it had never been used as an insult, so refuting the premise of an entry in Depraved and Insulting English, which he earlier wrote with Peter Novobatzky.
This may be explained easily enough. The word never moved beyond a very limited medical circulation and so it never gained the instant recognition necessary for it to be applied insultingly. It derives from Latin nates, plural of natis, a buttock. It has never been used to refer to the buttocks themselves, instead always to some anatomical feature that contains a deep cleft. The OED marks it as obsolete, though natiform skull, bony nodules on the surface ... 615-3: Recently noted - Malus If this word brings apples to mind, then you’re probably a gardener or a horticulturalist, since it’s the botanical name for the genus, from the Latin word for an apple tree. Though malus isn’t in any general dictionary that I’ve consulted, it’s also a fairly common term in the world of banking, insurance and contracts. A malus is the opposite of a bonus — you might call it a forfeit or a clawback instead. It’s receiving more attention as finance houses seek to rein in excessive payments to senior staff (it was in the news last week because the Swiss bank UBS has introduced malus provisions for its executives). It turns up in particular in the form bonus-malus system, for a contract that rewards success but penalises failure. The word is from Latin malus, bad. Bonus is also from Latin, from a word for a good thing, an association of ideas that may be open to doubt as ... 615-4: Questions and Answers: Not to be sneezed at -
[Q] From Sybil Cubilette: “During a visit abroad I was having a conversation with a friend. As he doesn’t speak English as a first language, he would often ask the meaning of slang I used quite frequently, such as not to be sneezed at. Could you could provide some information as to where this comes from?”
[A] Since the expression dates from the early nineteenth century, we are in the realm of supposition here, since nothing on record gives any convincing evidence about where it comes from.
We do know that it’s almost exactly contemporary with the form without the negative. To sneeze at something was to despise, disregard or underrate it, to treat it with derision or consider it worth little or nothing. We may guess that... 615-5: Sic! - • Gloria Bryant read an item on BBC news on 22 November that included an unfortunate juxtaposition of words: “A former police chief in Argentina, wanted for alleged crimes against human rights, shoots himself dead live on television.” The article has since been corrected to read, “ shot himself dead in front of television cameras.”
• Gordon Caruana Dingli communicates that The Malta Housing Authority is offering social housing as an environmentally friendly measure, but with a special feature, so its Web site says: “All the properties have environmental friendly measures including roof insulation, double glazing, lovers and wells.” Hello, young louvres, wherever you are
• Sporting News Today for 21 November — John Carlson reports — seemed to look into the future with this muddled sentence: “Jazz musician Wayne Ti... 615-6: Copyright and contact details - World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2008. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this newsletter in whole or part in free online newsletters, newsgroups or mailing lists provided that you include this note and the copyright notice above. Reproduction in printed publications or on Web sites or blogs requires prior permission, for which you should contact the editor.
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