Blowing Off The Hinky Cobwebs

The Word Collector — Part 39 — On boo baskets, laksa, and bouliganism

This is the latest in a series about new words and phrases, specimens collected during expeditions into the deepest, darkest literary and media wilderness, and displayed for your entertainment, elucidation, and enlightenment. These are new to me, but of course, you may know some or all of them already, in which case you are welcome to marvel at my ignorance, an inexhaustible seam of material to be mined.

Boo basket — The season of Halloween will have been and gone by the time you read this, but I was interested to learn about a new trend for something called a “boo basket”, which is a receptacle filled with seasonal treats to give to your loved one. Though as the article points out, the trend has inevitably been seized on by firms wishing to exploit our consumer culture even further —

Cobwebbing — this word refers to the process of clearing off the cobwebs and dumping old names and flames so you can make the first move towards something new. It was seen in an article by RC Hammond.

Slapp — a type of lawsuit being used to silence investigative journalists. It is an acronym standing for strategic litigation against public participation, and is a handy one linguistically, though not pleasant for the recipient, since as a result, it means someone can be slapped with a lawsuit, slapped with a Slapp if you like. The acronym is used in this article in “The Guardian”:

Yerkes-Dodson Law — this term is used by James Bellerjeau in the article below. The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases. With the customary wisdom that James generously dispenses, he advises:

“One of the best things I did to improve the quality of my work was to decrease the quantity of it. I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that simply working more hours was not the only or best path to better performance. You’d think I’d have learned this lesson in my first associate job after putting in 100-hour weeks and pulling regular all-nighters. There comes a point when just grinding out more hours definitely becomes counter-productive. If you’ve tried writing a coherent sentence after working for 36 hours straight, you’ll know what I mean.”

Laksa — This is a sour and spicy noodle broth, traditionally topped with meat or seafood, claimed variously to originate with Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean cuisine. The fact that three different nations want to claim it means it must be nice! The article in which I saw the dish named is on the BBC website, and highlights the fact that laksa has become a food fad in the Australian city of Darwin.

Hinky — this is an informal adjective, meaning of a person, dishonest or suspect, such as in the phrase “…he knew the guy was hinky….”. Also used to mean that an object is unreliable, such as in the phrase “….my brakes are a little hinky….” Though if you are writing this you should be getting them checked out rather than spending time on Medium!. The word is used by Carol F in this article –

Guayusa — This word turned up in a post in a Facebook group I moderate, and it was advertising an event where the substance was going to be served. I thought for a moment it was something illicit, and I was going to have to censor the post, as I did not want to be held responsible for encouraging trippy hippies. However apparently not, as I discovered after looking the word up. Guayusa is a species of tree of the holly genus, native to the Amazon Rainforest. One of four known caffeinated holly trees, the leaves of the guayusa tree are harvested fresh and brewed like tea for their stimulative effects. So apparently no worse than the gallons of coffee I get through.

gnomic — an adjective meaning expressed in or of the nature of short, pithy maxims or aphorisms. It can also mean difficult to understand, because enigmatic or ambiguous, for example as in the phrase “I had to have the gnomic response interpreted for me.” The word is used in “Mafia State” by Luke Harding, about Russia, which I am currently reading.

apotheosis — Also from “Mafia State”, this is a noun meaning the highest point in the development of something; a culmination or climax. For example as in:

“ His appearance as Hamlet was the apotheosis of his career”.

It may also mean the elevation of someone to divine status. For example as in:

“Death spared Pompey the task of having to account for the apotheosis of Caesar.”

Pomelo — I had never heard of this before but the pomelo is the largest of the citrus fruits, with a thick yellow skin and bitter pulp which resembles grapefruit in flavour. Also called shaddock. The fruit was referred to by my friend Charles, whom I met last weekend, always entertaining company. He has a love of cutting the skin off various fruits to make headdresses. Don’t ask!

shonky — an informal adjective, meaning dishonest, unreliable, or illegal, especially in a devious way. For example “…shonky political goings-on…..”. As a noun, it means a person engaged in suspect business activities, for example “….we need to rid the building industry of these shonkies quickly…..”. Mrs Pearce has learned of my fascination with new words and pointed this one out to me, used to describe some builders. As if….

INBD — An acronym meaning “it’s no big deal” used by RC Hammond in this article, to summarise a nice philosophy for a slower, simpler, and better attitude to life:

bouliganism — This is a portmanteau word, formed from the French sport of boules (also known as pétanque) , and the English sport of hooliganism. It turned up on the BBC TV show, “Have I Got News For You” with a story about normally mild-mannered people falling out over games of pétanque would you believe!

“Lit” — This word is from Yohan J’s excellent series about words and phrases used by Gen Z. In this context, “lit” is deployed to mean “overly excited and popping stylish”. As in for example, “John was lit to see the size of his Medium bonus.”

I hope you enjoyed this collection, and do share any favourites of your own in the comments.

As always, thank you for reading.

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Previous articles from The Word Collector:

Part 38 — A Dreich Case Of Psychoterratic Solastalgia

Part 37 — A Cockamamie Collection Of Highkey Zhuzh

Part 36 — Keggers, Kerning, Çay and Crickets

Part 35 — Murmuring judges and anhedonia

Part 34 — A-quomodocunquizing-borborygmus

Part 33 — Going Monk Mode In Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu

Part 32 — Turpitudinous Tourons

Part 31 — Hurkle durkle, medicanes and misophonia

Part 30 — Immortal earworms

Part 29 — Government on the RAAC

Part 28 –Saved by a deus ex machina

Part 27 — Pre-Lapsarian Yakers

Part 26 — Fegans, Jorts, Rababs And Scotch Bonnets

Part 25 — Fissiparous Hegemony

Part 24 — Lollygag And Booktok

Part 23 — Patronymics And Samovars

Part 22 — Medium Is No Chronofage If YRMIRY

Part 21 — Everything Is Eellogofusciouhipoppokunurious

Part 20 — Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia And The Matthew Effect

Part 19 — A Nappuccino And Some Typo-Squatting

Part 18 — Yeeting Detritovres

Part 17 — An Inverted Pyramid Of Piffle On The Bed Of Procrustes

Part 16 — Having The Jones And Partisan Acrimony

Part 15 — Spycops In The Boondocks

Part 14 — Harlots, Stochastic Parrots, And The Devil’s Cufflinks

Part 13 — The Things We Make Exceptional

Part 12 — “Semper Fidelis” And Semantic Symbiosis

Part 11 — Heliophobic Hikikomori

Part 10 — Lenticular Clouds And Peque Peques

Part 9 — Big Red Boots And Nepo Babies

Part 8 — A Patina Of Smilies

Part 7 — Atavistic frou frou

Part 6-Mouth Breathers And Pearl Clutchers

Part 5 — The Lexophile’s Latest List

Part 4 — Revenge of the word collector

Part 3- An Etymological Extravaganza

Part 2- Return Of The Word Collector

Part 1 — A Moment In The Sun