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Jun 23, 2003

This week's theme
Slang/informal terms

This week's words
muggle
gearhead
fress
vibe
bumf

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And that's how a language grows. Old words die - or take on a new life. New words appear. Language wordstock is replenished, refreshed, and the language remains vibrant and serviceable, ready to describe new concepts, ideas, and objects. Many language purists object to this way of growth. But we have to remember that just as yesterday's liberal is often tomorrow's conservative, in many cases, what was considered slang in the past, eventually acquires respectability.

This week we'll look at some slang and informal terms.

muggle

noun:
1. An ordinary person, one with no magical powers.
2. A clumsy or unskilled person.

[From a series of children's novels by JK Rowling. See a week of words with usage examples from Harry Potter here.]

"Of course, the team has had less magic than a muggle this year, with a 3-9 record, even with its new star player."
Lloyd Grove; The Reliable Source; The Washington Post; Nov 27, 2001.

"If a muggle stumbles on a cache, they sometimes take all the contents of the cache since they are uninformed on geocacher etiquette."
Jessica Valdez; Players Try to Unearth Hidden Treasures in Game of Geocache; The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland); Apr 17, 2003.

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