Happy Wednesday! It’s time for the latest buzzworthy words that caught our eye. This week: a Beck-worthy eponym, a new Jon Stewart-ism, and a party you definitely don’t want to go to.

Beck’ed

“Kanye West has been ‘BECK’ed’!”

Yaron Steinbuch, “Kanye’s free NYC concert gets ‘BECK’d’,” The New York Post, February 13, 2015

To be honest, we’re not positive what Beck’ed means. What we do know is that in response to Kanye West’s interrupting Beck during his acceptance speech (now commonly known as pulling a Kanye) at the Grammys and saying that Beck should have given his award to Beyonce, an ad agency put up large letters spelling out BECK! in building windows facing a free concert West was giving in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.

We’re guessing to be Beck’ed means to be publicly reminded of a prior “diss.”

debbie downer from mcfly.ttrav on Vimeo.

breaking

“The digital short, ‘That’s When You Break,’ centered on various Saturday Night Live cast members ‘breaking’ (as in, breaking character and laughing) during sketches — with a special emphasis on the infamous breaking duo of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz.”

Pilot Viruet, “The 5 ‘SNL 40′ Sketches You Absolutely Have to Watch,” Flavorwire, February 16, 2015

While the word breaking could very well be a shortening of breaking character, another possibility is that it comes from or is influence by the phrase break up, or “to convulse with laughter,” as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) puts it.

While this sense of break up originated in the latter half of the 1800s, we’re not sure when the term breaking character was coined. (It’s not in the OED or Wordnik for that matter). Google Ngrams shows a slight bump for break character around 1860 (although this might have referred to the opposite of build character); another small rise in the early 1910s (perhaps when vaudeville was at its peak), and finally a rapid escalation around 1959.

Corpsing is the British English equivalent of breaking. According to the OED, corpse began as actors’ slang in the 1850s, meaning to confuse an actor during his performance or “to spoil (a scene or piece of acting) by some blunder,” perhaps with the idea of killing a character or scene.

By 1874 the term specifically meant to forget one’s lines, and by the early 1970s, “to spoil one’s performance by being confused or made to laugh by one’s colleagues.”

Brownbacking

“But Stewart brought it back home by noting that Alabama just last year passed an amendment barring the use of foreign law in state court deliberations — and since the Bible was written in a foreign land, ‘you have f—ed yourself with your own statute,’ Stewart told the Yellowhammer State. ‘Or as I hope it comes to be known: ‘Brownbacking’.’”

Peter Weber, “‘Brownbacking’: Jon Stewart tackles gay rights in Kansas, Alabama,” The Week, February 12, 2015

Recently the governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, “signed an executive order rescinding legal protections for gay and lesbian state employees,” says The Week. In addition, Alabama state Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered local courts to not hand out marriage licenses to same-sex couples, defying a federal court ruling. Moore cited the Bible despite Alabama’s own amendment “barring the use of foreign law,” of which the Bible is, “in state court deliberations.”

Stewart suggested calling such a practice Brownbacking, named for the Kansas governor and playing on  the term barebacking, which means to have sex without a condom, especially between men.

chakka

“The ad reaches its lowest point when they call Team India chakka (eunuch) nicely hidden behind the cricketing term also called chakka meaning sixer! *Slow Clap* for the ‘creativity’ of this particular ad-makers.”

Rashmi Mishra, “Pakistan’s response to India vs Pakistan promotional ad of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is disgusting!” India.com, February 13, 2015

The word chakka has various meanings across multiple Indian languages, making it ripe for punning. In Malayam, a language of Kerala, the word refers to jackfruit. In Hindi, it’s a cricket term meaning “six runs,” but it’s also derogatory slang referring to either a eunuch, a male-to-female transgender, or the female gentials.

measles party

“California health officials are warning parents not to hold ‘measles parties’ that intentionally expose their children to measles and other childhood diseases.”

Liz Neporent, “Stay Away from ‘Measles Parties’ Docs Warn Parents,” ABC News, February 9, 2015

Since the story broke about anti-vaccination parents possibly holding measles parties, some sources are now reporting that recent occurrences of such types of social engagements may simply be a rumor.

ABC News says measles parties were held “in the 1950s and 1960s before the MMR vaccine program was introduced for measles, mumps and rubella.” In our cursory search, we couldn’t find a primary reference for measles parties being popular during those decades, although we did find a mention from 1914:

You can imagine how shocked they were when they heard of a woman who gave a ‘measles party’ when her children had the disease so that her friends children might get it, too.

Measles parties seem to have made a resurgence around 1998 after a study emerged linking MMR vaccines to autism. However, in 2009 it was revealed that the study’s author “had manipulated patient data and misreported results,” and the paper was retracted in February 2010.

Chickenpox parties were common before the introduction of the varicella or chickenpox vaccine in 1995. But the scare around MMR vaccines seems to have spread to vaccines in general, and like measles parties, chickenpox parties made a resurgence after 1998.

[Photo via Flickr, “Party 1950s Style,” CC BY 2.0 by NinaZed]

It’s time for one of our favorite things — new words! Some are newly coined (also known as neologisms); some are just new to us. All are buzzworthy.

This week: managing your impressions; the zen of subway-spreading; and adding to the vaccine debate.

anticipation

“The  phenomenon, which geneticists call ‘anticipation,’ is common in other genetic disorders.”

Aimee Swartz, “Insomnia That Kills,” The Atlantic, February 5, 2015

In genetics, anticipation is the “the widely held belief,” says The Atlantic, “that in a family with genetic prion disease, each successive generation will fall ill about seven to 14 years earlier than the last.” Eric Minikel, a software engineer turned geneticist, recently disproved this theory through a computational method he developed.

The genetic meaning of anticipation seems to have originated around the 1750s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

impression management

“Other people complain as a means of crafting or reinforcing their identities; they use their complaints, in other words, to manipulate how others may see them, a phenomenon psychologists call ‘impression management.’”

Barbara Neal Varma, “Complaining, for Your Health,” The Atlantic, February 8, 2015

Impression management is a psychological term referring to “a goal-directed conscious or subconscious process” to try to influence others’ perceptions.

The Atlantic says that complaining could have a positive effect on impression management. For instance, someone who complains that a “restaurant’s wine selection is under par” lets “others know that the complainer has high standards” (and isn’t just a wine-r).

omspreading

“Reader Dave B. sent us the Omspreading photo yesterday, noting, ‘this manspreading a-hole was meditating on a packed 4 train.’”

Ben Yakas, “Omspreading: The Most Zen Way To Take Up Space On The Subway,” Gothamist, February 6, 2015

There’s really no limit to the types of inappropriate –spreading on public transportation. In addition to manspreading, there’s now omspreading, a meditative take on taking up too much space on the subway.

Gothamist also offers bagspreading, giving your bags or other belongings their own seat, perhaps in a passive-aggressive attempt to dissuade others from sitting beside you.

spontaneous order

“According to Stossel, Americans would be better off with less government and more ‘spontaneous order,’ a term coined by economist Friedrich Hayek which states that order will naturally emerge from chaos.”

David Edwards, “Fox host: FEMA is unnecessary because Walmart will ‘spontaneously’ save us all in a disaster,” Raw Story, February 8, 2015

While Friedrich Hayek and others in the Austrian School of Economics refined the concept of spontaneous order, Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou seemed to be the first to hit upon the idea, arguing against the “authoritarianism” of Confucianism and claiming that “good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.”

Damon Linker at The Week has argued against spontaneous order, saying that the U.S. conducted “two experiments in ‘spontaneous order’ in recent years by overthrowing governments in Iraq and Libya,” which brought not order but “anarchy and civil war, mass death and human suffering.” Linker goes on to say that “the libertarian prophets of ‘spontaneous order’ get things exactly backward, sometimes with catastrophic real-world consequences.”

The Economist, however, points out that while “Hayek is commonly lumped in with libertarians” and spontaneous order “is an idea libertarians tend to promote,” spontaneous order “is not a libertarian idea.” Hayek devised the idea of a spontaneous order, The Economist says, “not to argue against the necessity of government, but to argue against mercantilism and the micromanagement of the economy.”

vaccine delayer

“Not only has the [MMR] vaccine received an undue amount of bad press because of the debunked autism link, but as San Francisco vaccine delayer Paul explained, no other vaccine contains three live and weakened viruses.”

Julia Belluz, “The vaccine delayers,” Vox, February 6, 2015

There are the anti-vaxxers, those against vaccinations; vaccine hawks, those aggressively pro-vaccine; and vaccine delayers, who, according to Vox, “generally agree that vaccination is a public-health benefit and “hate ‘anti-vaxxers,’ but are “hesitant and skeptical about some areas of vaccine science.”

[Photo via Flickr: “Lump’o Rider on The Middle Seat,” CC BY 2.0 by Mo Riza]

Happy February! We kick off the shortest month of the year with our latest favorite buzzworthy words. This week: weather that’s the bomb; the side effect of Frappuccinos; and sometimes a tweet is just a tweet.

bombogenesis

“While millions of Americans gear up for likely historic snowfall this week, they should also prepare for a blizzard of the latest meteorological buzzword: bombogenesis.”

Alexander Smith, “‘Bombogenesis’: Northeast Blizzard Will Be Fueled Dramatic Pressure Drop,” NBC News, January 26, 2015

Bombogenesis is, as NBC News says, the equivalent of a “meteorological bomb.” A meteorological bomb is when “a storm’s area of lowest pressure experiences a rapid drop of more than 24 millibars in 24 hours.” This makes a storm go from “routine” to “intense” very quickly.

Bombogenesis is also referred to as explosive cyclogenesis, a weather bomb, or, simply, a bomb. Bombo- comes from the Greek bombos, “deep and hollow sound,” while genesis comes from the Greek genesis, “origin, source, beginning, nativity, generation, production, creation.”

Bok globule

“CG4, also known as God’s Hand, is a cometary globule — a Bok globule on which one side has been blown outwards into a long tail, resembling a comet.”

Michelle Starr, “Mysterious nebula revealed in new image: ‘Mouth of the Beast,’” CNET, January 28, 2015

Bok globules are, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), “small interstellar clouds of very cold gas and dust that are so thick they are nearly totally opaque to visible light.”

A cloud of interstellar dust or gas is also known as a nebula, which comes from the Latin word meaning “mist, vapor, fog, smoke, exhalation.” The Latin nebula also gives us nebulous.

Bok globules were named for astronomer Bart Bok, who first observed the nebulae in the 1940s. The CfA says Bok globules “were originally discovered as black splotches in front of dense fields of stars,” and were dubbed “holes in the heaven” because they “appeared like holes in the stellar background.”

chai-yok

“Granted, the V-Steam is not something Paltrow made up out of thin, steam-filled air — it’s actually a centuries-old practice in Korea called chai-yok, and its practitioners believe it can reduce stress, regulate menstrual cycles and get rid of hemorrhoids.”

Mackenzie Dawson, “Gwyneth steaming her vagina is the best thing she’s done in years,” New York Post, January 30, 2015

According to the New York Post, chai-yok, also known as a V-steam, involves sitting on a “mini-throne” and allowing a “combination of infrared and mugwort” to steam clean, well, your V. It’s not just a “steam douche,” Paltrow assures us, but “an energetic release” that “balances female hormone levels.”

Several publications, including the Post, TIME, and Fast Company, call chai-yok a “centuries-old Korean practice.” However, at least some doubt this veracity, suggesting it might be a “Los Angeles Korean” invention instead.

Chai-yok seems to translate from Korean as “tea bath.”

Starbucks effect

“Starbucks has become a major indicator in determining the market value of a neighborhood, so, yes, your high-priced lattes do affect the real estate market. They call it the Starbucks Effect.”

Joanna Fantozzi, “Yes, Starbucks Does Impact the Real Estate Market, and Here’s Why,” The Daily Meal, January 29, 2015

The Starbucks effect suggests that “more Starbucks locations in a neighborhood lead to higher-priced homes.” Zillow, a real-estate start-up, determined this by comparing a database of Starbucks locations with their own data, and found that homes near Starbucks locations appreciated at a much faster rate than those not Frappuccino-proximate.

Back in 2000, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) had a different definition for the Starbucks effect. HBR described it as the increased “cachet” of a product — for instance, Starbucks making coffee seem “fancier” and therefore more desirable — resulting in higher prices and profits for the entire product category.

This meaning of Starbucks effect might be a play on the earlier Southwest effect, which refers to “the considerable boost in air travel that invariably resulted from Southwest’s entry into new markets,” due to Southwest’s lower costs and improved service.

Other “effects” include the butterfly effect, the domino effect, the ripple effect, and many more.

supertweet

“[The subtweet is] a private whisper shrouded in ‘I didn’t say anything’ innocence. But the supertweet is direct in its apophasis, like the politician’s insult.”

Ian Bogost, “Introducing the Supertweet,” The Atlantic, January 28, 2015

While a subtweet is a tweet that refers to someone in a negative way without actually naming them, a supertweet is a negative tweet that overtly names the target (we think that’s all a supertweet is although The Atlantic seems to say it’s more, but what that “more” is, we’re not positive).

Subtweet, a blend of subliminal and tweet, seems to have originated in 2010 or earlier.

[Photo via Flickr: “Starbucks at home,” CC BY 2.0 by Jerine Lay]

What’s that? You need a word break? You’ve come to the right place.

This week: the importance of vaccinations; the debate over sitting (or standing) to pee; and yet another –sexual.

herd immunity

“This is what scientists call ‘herd immunity,’ and its a huge reason we get vaccines in the first place.”

Sarah Kliff, “The scariest fact about the Disneyland measles outbreak,” Vox, January 23, 2015

In herd immunity, a significant proportion of the population is vaccinated, which protects those who have yet to be vaccinated. In the case of measles, infants can’t get the MMR vaccine until they’re a year old, which means, says Vox, that until then, “babies depend on the fact that everybody else around them gets vaccinated.”

malvertising

“As if small businesses didn’t have enough to worry about when it comes to computer security, here’s another thing to keep you up at night: malvertising.”

Elizabeth Weise, “Malware in ads turn computers into zombies,” USA Today, January 20, 2015

Malvertising, a blend of malware and advertising, is malicious software “hidden in online advertising,” says USA Today.

One type of malvertising “grabs information off the user’s hard drive,” and as a result the hackers can “gain access to e-mail and bank account information.” Another type steals the user’s online persona, “turning their computer into one piece in a vast network of hijacked computers called a botnet,” and going online to visit and click on advertisements as though it were that user.

While this kind of malware doesn’t affect the user, it does affect advertisers “who paid for real people to see their ad, but instead are paying for robot views.”

POPO

“Most POPOs are not widely publicized or even marked, probably because property managers would prefer not to deal with any aggravation.”

Peter Lawrence Kane, “Downtown SF Might Lose a Ton of Public Spaces,” The Bold Italic, January 22, 2015

POPO stands for “privately-owned public open space,” and refers to “publicly accessible spaces in forms of plazas, terraces, atriums, small parks, and even snippets that are provided and maintained by private developers.” The term is also known as POPS, “privately-owned public space,” and seems to have been popularized by this book published in 2000.

POPOs originated from a 1980s policy in which commercial development in downtown San Francisco was only allowed “in exchange for public access,” says The Bold Italic. Now a proposed amendment would allow developers to pay a fee rather than providing public open space.

sitzpinkler

“The controversy pits stehpinklers (men who stand up to pee) against sitzpinklers (men who sit down), and it has taken some bizarre twists over the years.”

Uri Friedman, “A Victory for the Right to Pee Standing Up,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015

Sitzpinkler and stehpinkler are both German. Sitz means “seat,” steh means “stand,” and pinkler comes from pinkel, which means, you guessed it, to pee.

In Germany there has been a long-running debate about “whether men should be encouraged to sit down when urinating,” says The Atlantic. Both pro- and con-sitzers feel strongly. Sitzpinkler has also come to mean “wimp,” while German supermarkets have taken to installing toilet gadgets that chastise men attempting to stehpinkel.

Meanwhile, a University of Chicago law professor is on a different sort of toilet crusade: increasing “excreting opportunities” for women in public restrooms. She proposes removing couches, full-length mirrors, and vanities, and replacing them with more toilets to sitzpinkel in.

(H/t Mededitor.)

spornosexual

“With the spornosexual movement in full flight, men are now constantly bombarded with potent imagery of celebrities with improbable physiques: some of the most potent and pervasive are from Hollywood.”

Max Olesker, “The Rise of the Spornosexual,” Esquire, January 12, 2015

First we had metrosexual. Then, lumbersexual. Now: spornosexual.

Spornosexuals are men who “strive to look like sportsmen or porn stars,” rather than bodybuilders, says Esquire. Journalist Mark Simpson, who introduced the word metrosexual in 1994, started writing about “sporno” culture in 2006, “noting the rise in hypersexualised, homoprovocative imagery of sportsmen.”

[Photo via Flickr, “Serious Restroom Sign,” CC BY 2.0 by Chad Kainz]