Collins Word of the Year 2019 shortlist

 

On Thursday, 7 November 2019, Collins Dictionaries announced their shortlist for words of the year.

Many of these words have even entered the lexicon of many other European languages. Apart from French, of course, as they've probably insisted on having their own, well, 'French' versions of these words.

So I'm pretty sure you know what several of them mean, but just to check, I've given you THREE possible meanings of these words. 

So can you choose the best meanings?

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1. climate strike

a) When the weather itself is simply not the type of weather that is expected for the time of year. There's no snow this winter, so it seems the weather's on climate strike.

b) A form of protest in which people choose not to go to school or work so they can join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change. I'm not going to school on Fridays as I'm on climate strike.

c) A method of artificial 'striking' rainclouds in order to force rain. We need to proceed with a climate strike on that weather front to get more water to those low-lying areas.

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2. bopo

a) Also spelt BoPo. A movement advocating the view that people should be proud of the appearance of their bodies, or any aspect of this, especially size. Hey, chill out! You just need to show a bit more bopo!

b) A kind of movement that promotes the idea of big bottoms (Bo) and posteriors (Po), which is a more formal version of 'bottoms'. You shouldn't be ashamed of your weight; a lot of people have no problem with bopos.

c) Also known as BOPO, a BiOdegradable Petrol Oil that is 90 per cent more efficient than standard petrol. Formula 1 cars are expected to switch to BOPO for the 2022 season.

 

3. cancel

a) To no longer accept or acknowledge a person or organization, particularly on social media, in order to express how unhappy they are of this person's or organisation's activities or opinions. After those comments, I'm cancelling you, you troll.

b) To decide to have no more to do with the day, and to do nothing else. This day's been so awful I'm cancelling it.

c) A very minor form of cancer. We've done the scan and we've found up some cancels on your liver, so we can operate on those before it becomes full-blown cancer.

 

4. deepfake

a) To use heavy cosmetics in order to give the impression of someone being more beautiful than they really are. She's not that pretty, it's all because of all that deepfake.

b) An individual who regularly tricks older people into giving them money by pretending to be someone they are not. She's lost thousands of zlotys being caught out by all those deepfakes from that radio station.

c) A digital video that can be changed to give the appearance of an unedited video, and so to trick the viewer into believing the video is real. Boris Johnson looks like he's saying those things, but he's a deepfake; even the voice is wrong. But it's a clever video.

 

5. double down

a) An extra thick quilt for the bed. A normal eiderdown is no good for this weather; you'll need a double down to cover your bed.

b) A business term to describe the very quick speed of a business losing money. The company was struggling for profit last year, but this quarter losses are heading for double down.

c) To make your commitment to an idea stronger even if there is risk or even people against it. Despite what we were saying, he just double downed on it.

 

6. entryist

a) Someone who is accepted into a social group and made to feel welcome by them. She and other business start-up managers are now entryists into the city's cultivated society.

b) A person who joins an existing political party and wants to change its principles and policies. Thanks to their policies on Brexit, there were a lot of Conservative party entryists.

c) An alternative to the idiom 'to make an entrance' as a noun in the meaning 'someone who knows how to enter something in an impressive way'. Well, with a performance like that, you can't say he wasn't an entryist.

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7. hopepunk

a) An individual with plans to join a movement that advocates radical change in the way we live, but lacks the ideals. The Green Party is filled with hopepunks.

b) A literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity. We need a lot of hopepunk television these days.

c) A book genre that describes scenes set in a society set in a quasi-Victorian setting, but with late 20th century attitudes. The modern-day Sherlock TV series had an episode set in Victorian times but with a hopepunk attitude.

 

8. influencer

a) A person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to his or her followers. He's got a website on teaching English, but this influencer keeps pushing the haircream he uses. 

b) A business term for a person that works in company recruitment, often using their influence to get what they want. Mr. Henson's quite an influencer when it comes to the type of people we need

c) An advisor to a political party, often following a belief that what they are doing is right and everybody else is wrong. Dominic Cummings was a heavy influencer on Boris Johnson and the conservative party.

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9. nonbinary (or non-binary)

a) Relating to a gender or sexual identity that is neither male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. He has declared himself nonbinary.

b) Not digital, but analogue. I much prefer the good-old-fashioned nonbinary radios, which used to be called wirelesses.

c) Using a mathematical formula that is unrelated to using simply zeroes or ones. Can't we do these calculations in a non-binary way?

 

10. rewilding

a) The practice of restoring captured animals and returning them to the wild. The process of rewilding has begun for these injured tiger cubs.

b) A regression in the state of someone's education, seen as a derogatory term for introducing old-fashioned and outdated ideas into the educational system. They're just simply rewilding the kids so they can be more easily influenced by these politicians in the future.

c) The practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there. The results of rewilding can be clearly seen in Pripyat, a Ukrainian city that was abandoned over thirty years ago thanks to Chernobyl.

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And the answers (in bold)...

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1. climate strike

a) When the weather itself is simply not the type of weather that is expected for the time of year. There's no snow this winter, so it seems the weather's on climate strike.

b) A form of protest in which people choose not to go to school or work so they can join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change. I'm not going to school on Fridays as I'm on climate strike.

c) A method of artificial 'striking' rainclouds in order to force rain. We need to proceed with a climate strike on that weather front to get more water to those low-lying areas.

​

2. bopo

a) Also spelt BoPo. A movement advocating the view that people should be proud of the appearance of their bodies, or any aspect of this, especially size. Hey, chill out! You just need to show a bit more bopo!

b) A kind of movement that promotes the idea of big bottoms (Bo) and posteriors (Po), which is a more formal version of 'bottoms'. You shouldn't be ashamed of your weight; a lot of people have no problem with bopos.

c) Also known as BOPO, a BiOdegradable Petrol Oil that is 90 per cent more efficient than standard petrol. Formula 1 cars are expected to switch to BOPO for the 2022 season.

 

3. cancel

a) To no longer accept or acknowledge a person or organization, particularly on social media, in order to express how unhappy they are of this person's or organisation's activities or opinions. After those comments, I'm cancelling you, you troll.

b) To decide to have no more to do with the day, and to do nothing else. This day's been so awful I'm cancelling it.

c) A very minor form of cancer. We've done the scan and we've found up some cancels on your liver, so we can operate on those before it becomes full-blown cancer.

 

4. deepfake

a) To use heavy cosmetics in order to give the impression of someone being more beautiful than they really are. She's not that pretty, it's all because of all that deepfake.

b) An individual who regularly tricks older people into giving them money by pretending to be someone they are not. She's lost thousands of zlotys being caught out by all those deepfakes from that radio station.

c) A digital video that can be changed to give the appearance of an unedited video, and so to trick the viewer into believing the video is real. Boris Johnson looks like he's saying those things, but he's a deepfake; even the voice is wrong. But it's a clever video.

 

5. double down

a) An extra thick quilt for the bed. A normal eiderdown is no good for this weather; you'll need a double down to cover your bed.

b) A business term to describe the very quick speed of a business losing money. The company was struggling for profit last year, but this quarter losses are heading for double down.

c) To make your commitment to an idea stronger even if there is risk or even people against it. Despite what we were saying, he just double downed on it.

 

6. entryist

a) Someone who is accepted into a social group and made to feel welcome by them. She and other business start-up managers are now entryists into the city's cultivated society.

b) A person who joins an existing political party and wants to change its principles and policies. Thanks to their policies on Brexit, there were a lot of Conservative party entryists.

c) An alternative to the idiom 'to make an entrance' as a noun in the meaning 'someone who knows how to enter something in an impressive way'. Well, with a performance like that, you can't say he wasn't an entryist.

​

7. hopepunk

a) An individual with plans to join a movement that advocates radical change in the way we live, but lacks the ideals. The Green Party is filled with hopepunks.

b) A literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity. We need a lot of hopepunk television these days.

c) A book genre that describes scenes set in a society set in a quasi-Victorian setting, but with late 20th century attitudes. The modern-day Sherlock TV series had an episode set in Victorian times but with a hopepunk attitude.

 

8. influencer

a) A person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to his or her followers. He's got a website on teaching English, but this influencer keeps pushing the haircream he uses. 

b) A business term for a person that works in company recruitment, often using their influence to get what they want. Mr. Henson's quite an influencer when it comes to the type of people we need

c) An advisor to a political party, often following a belief that what they are doing is right and everybody else is wrong. Dominic Cummings was a heavy influencer on Boris Johnson and the conservative party.

​

9. nonbinary (or non-binary)

a) Relating to a gender or sexual identity that is neither male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. He has declared himself nonbinary.

b) Not digital, but analogue. I much prefer the good-old-fashioned nonbinary radios, which used to be called wirelesses.

c) Using a mathematical formula that is unrelated to using simply zeroes or ones. Can't we do these calculations in a non-binary way?

 

10. rewilding

a) The practice of restoring captured animals and returning them to the wild. The process of rewilding has begun for these injured tiger cubs.

b) A regression in the state of someone's education, seen as a derogatory term for introducing old-fashioned and outdated ideas into the educational system. They're just simply rewilding the kids so they can be more easily influenced by these politicians in the future.

c) The practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there. The results of rewilding can be clearly seen in Pripyat, a Ukrainian city that was abandoned over thirty years ago thanks to Chernobyl.

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