New Oxford English Dictionary words – bazinga, stoozing and compers?
I spent yesterday sitting in Countdown‘s Dictionary Corner with the wonderful lexicographer Susie Dent. As always, I go armed with my lobbying of words that I think should be put in the dictionary – as Susie does a lot of work with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
While much of it is fun banter, Susie is always very receptive. The OED is keen to hear and test whether new words hit their usage frequency thresholds – even if they’re only used by some sectors of society.
Doctors have their own medical terms and lawyers legal terms, so why not the millions of MoneySavers’ MoneySaving terms? So here were the three we discussed that she said she’d look at…
Stoozing. Not the first time we’ve discussed this. It’s a MoneySaving term used in many places and it’s common in newspaper articles (even by myself – I must have used it 20 times over the years).
For those not in the know, it’s a technique to make profit out of cheap debt, ie, where you borrow for less than the savings rate, then save the cash borrowed. Full help in the Stoozing guide. Plus, see my old Stoozing… ready to enter the dictionary? blog.
Compers. This came up as one of the contestants tried "compies", thinking it described people who do competitions regularly and seriously as a profitable hobby.
As many regular site users will know, the now-common term is "compers" (see our compers’ guide for lots of tools to make comping easier). So Susie promised to have a look and check whether it’s likely to hit the usage criteria needed for entry.
Bazinga. OK, not a MoneySaving word, but as all regular watchers of Channel 4’s The Big Bang Theory will know, the lead character (and my personal hero), Dr Sheldon Cooper, uses the term after he has played one of his "hilarious" practical jokes.
The term now has a cult following and even a range of (very cool, um-hmm) t-shirts, as you can see above. Now, as "luvvly-jubbly" from Only Fools and Horses is in the dictionary, as are many other TV characters’ words, I think something with the width of use of "bazinga" should be there too – and I couldn’t help myself but lobby for the greatness of Dr Cooper.
