Following a quick survey of the office, I’m delighted to present to you our top English words and phrases of 2018! Why not try slipping them into your next meeting or language lesson?
Flearning /flɜːnɪŋ/
You could say that this is the 2018 version of James Joyce’s wise utterings: “a man’s mistakes are his portals of discovery”. Yes, ‘flearning’ is to fail at a task, but to learn a valuable lesson along the way. I hope you’ve all flearned at least once this year!
Brexodus /breksədəs/
The dreaded ‘b’ word, well half of it! This punchy little portmanteau refers to the numbers of UK residents and companies sadly leaving the country following the referendum result in 2016.
Agile talent /æʤaɪl tælənt/
There’s no denying there’s a lot of talent in our office; we have poets, artists, musicians and leaders to name but a few, and some of them may just be agile enough to handle a Zumba class or two. But this is not what we’re talking about here. ‘Agile talent’ refers to employees who are flexible, remote and unbound by physical barriers. And it’s just this kind of workforce that people are predicting will boost all kinds of business for the foreseeable future.
Ninja /nɪnʤə/
I am not referring here to the ancient art of ninjutsu, nor am I referring to those pizza loving turtles; I’m talking about the ‘excel ninjas’ of this world, the ‘code ninjas’, the ‘SEO ninjas’! Yes, all those people who can really help you out when you’ve hit a spot of bother in the office.
TL;DR (an abbreviation)
I sincerely hope you won’t be responding with the above to this article. TL;DR – what does it mean? I hear you ask. Well, it stands for ‘too long; didn’t read’. And clearly ‘too long; didn’t read’ is also too long to write!
Brexhausted /bregzɔːstɪd/
Have you had enough of hearing the words ‘backstop’, ‘Canada model’, ‘customs union’, ‘hard border’, ‘max-fac’, ‘Norway model’, ‘tariff-free trade’…I could go on. If you’re feeling fatigued after just reading those bunch of words, it’s highly likely you have a case of ‘brexhaustion’.
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