Fissiparous Hegemony
The Word Collector — part 25
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 perusal, purview, and presentment. 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.
Fissiparous –this rather wonderful-sounding word, perhaps partly onomatopoeic, is an adjective meaning inclined to cause or undergo division into separate parts or groups; of an organism, reproducing by fission. This word turned up in an article about UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to start rowing back on green measures, which is causing some rifts in the middle of the climate emergency -
“To be Put on a Fizzer” — the above word reminds me of this rather marvellous army slang, for someone being put on a charge, that they are “put on a fizzer” (the word Jankers is also used meaning confined to barracks, though I have not yet discovered where the term Jankers originally comes from, so if you happen to know, do share in the comments.
Mortgage — of course, I knew the word mortgage before, I am not that hard of thinking, it is just I saw a reference to it in “The Guardian”, as coming from the French word for death (mort) which I hadn’t thought of and thought how appropriate, especially with the recent rise in UK interest rates. A mortgage, which most people take on to borrow enough to afford to buy a house, is a form of death when you spend years of your life trying to pay it off.
Hegemonic — an adjective meaning ruling or dominant in a political or social context. — from “Breaking Together” by Jem Bendell which I am currently reading.
Piggy Bank — from the same book I came across an interesting version of where this expression for a savings container comes from — in the days when people still kept a pig in their backyard, the process of starting with a piglet and fattening it up ready for the chop was a source of saved value, though there needs to be a vegan alternative.
Russell Group Universities — this is a self-selecting association of twenty-four elite public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members’ interests, principally to the government and Parliament. The phrase was used in “University Challenge” on BBC television, a programme I watch in the forlorn hope of improving myself, and have excelled if I get one answer right per viewing.
Repechage — is a practice in series competitions, that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. This is again from University Challenge on BBC television and gives a losing team a second chance if they get a good score. You would not want me on your team.
EVTOL — as you may have gathered by now, I love a good acronym, and I suspect this may be one we hear a lot more about, standing for Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing — the pioneers of this technology are apparently hoping to roll it out in time for next year’s summer Olympics in Paris as this article explains. It all sounds very “gee wizz” regarding the technology, but it must be terrible for the environment, even if electrical — what is wrong with walking?
Cinch-a verb meaning to fasten something such as a belt or strap, sometimes on a horse. (Can also be a noun meaning something easy which is a context I had known before) The word turned up in this article about growing political violence in the US, when describing how a suspected murderer holds up his clothes -
As always, thank you for reading.
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