Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: YOLO, solo style; you’re just hearing things; a non-bot.

honjok

“Now, many businesses advertise themselves as friendly to the number of people who self-identify as honjok, or loners.”

Isabella Steger, Soo Kyung Jung, “Exhausted by the herd, single South Koreans are gingerly embracing the ‘YOLO’ lifestyle,” Quartz, August 2, 2017

While honjok means loner, says Quartz, honsul means drinking alone and honbap means “eating alone,” as opposed to hamkkebap, or “eating together.” Some bars in Korea are catering to such a preference with signs proclaiming, “Drinking alone is welcome here,” while a barbecue restaurant in Seoul embraces honbap by showing the various levels of solo dining mastery, from easiest (“eating ramen at a convenience store”) to the most difficult (“Korean barbecue, the ultimate group meal”).

fisk

“The clip featured somewhat rightist personality Dana Loesch promising, among other things, that she and the NRA would fisk The New York Times.”

Chris Matyszczyk, “Fisk: The word that’s all the rage at Dictionary.com,” CNET, August 6, 2017

Fisk apparently means to “rebut an argument line by line, especially on the Internet,” and seems to come from Robert Fisk, an English writer and journalist.

broflake

“In American political internet discourse, you’re either a snowflake or a broflake. Or you’re a smart person who’s deleted their Twitter account.”

Heather Dockray, “There’s a new kind of bro in town. We call him the ‘Broflake,’” Mashable, August 7, 2017

Broflake is a play on snowflake, “a derogatory term used against progressives deemed to be too soft on issues of national importance.” Like snowflakes, broflakes “are especially sensitive to issues of race, class and gender,” but are “the inverse of the snowflake community demographically and are disproportionately likely to be white, male, and making prank videos on YouTube.”

Broflakes defend traditional power hierarchies instead of challenging them, and are “more narcissistic than the typical bro and more sensitive to slights.” They also don’t mind letting everyone they’re “smarter than the average bro” by “tweeting approximately 12 times a minute.”

Shepard tone

“If you’ve never heard of a Shepard Tone, buckle in for some super interesting music knowledge.”

“The Fascinating Sonic Illusion That Makes Christopher Nolan’s Movies So Tense,” Digg, July 2017

According to this video from Vox, the Shepard tone is designed to cause an auditory illusion. It “consists of several tones separated by an octave, layered on top of each other,” and “as the tones move up the scale, the highest pitched tone gets quieter, the middle pitch remains loud, and the lowest bass pitch starts to become audible.” As a result, “your brain is tricked into perceiving a constant ascending tone.”

The Shepard-Risset glissando occurs when the tones are looped together, sounding like “an ascending piano scale going on for infinity,” which “can sound really spooky” and be used to create “the sound of rising tension” in a movie.

The Shepard tone is named for Roger Shepard, a cognitive scientist, while the Risset of the Shepard-Risset glissando comes from Jean-Claude Risset, a French composer.

Wizard of Oz experiment

“The fake driverless car experiment is a version of what’s known as a Wizard of Oz experiment—where subjects interact with a computer system they believe to be autonomous but that is actually operated by an unseen human being (at least partially).”

Andrew Small, “Here’s the Real Science Behind That Fake Driverless Car,” CityLab, August 6, 2017

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! The term Wizard of Oz, or WOz, technique is credited to John F. Kelly, whose “original work introduced human intervention in the work flow of a natural language processing application.”

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: Frappalicious, Singapore style; insulting the Dutch; a skinny repeal on chocolate.

shiok

“The name comes from ‘shiok,’ which reportedly is a slang term for pleasure — a name that makes more sense than wherever/however ‘Frap’ came about, but no matter.”

Lilian Min, “Starbucks Just Announced A New Frappuccino — But There’s a Catch,” Cosmopolitan, August 1, 2017

Shiok is a Singaporean English interjection that means “cool!” or “great!” as well as an adjective that refers to a delicious or superb meal, and a general term of approval. The term was added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in June 2016. The Shiok-ah-ccino mixes toasted coconut with caramelized palm sugar, says Cosmo, but is only available in Singapore.

go Dutch

“To ‘go Dutch’ or to have a ‘Dutch treat’ is to eat out with each person paying for their own bill, possibly from a stereotype of Dutch frugality.”

Thu-Huong Ha, “The phrase ‘going Dutch’ is a 300-year-old insult to Dutch people,” Quartz, July 26, 2017

Back when “England found itself fighting pretty much everyone in Europe,” says Quartz, “haughty digs toward other nations pervaded everyday language,” including insults to those in the Netherlands which remain “embedded in the English spoken by people all around the world.”

Besides going Dutch, there’s Dutch courage, bravado from drinking alcohol, “possibly related to a stereotype of the Dutch being heavy drinkers,” and Dutch bargain, “a deal struck over booze.”

double Dutch

“Double Dutch may sound like child’s play, but it’s more than just skipping rope.”

Gia Kourlas, “The Art and Artistry of Double Dutch,” The New York Times, July 25, 2017

Double Dutch originated in 1876 as a derisive term for a language “one does not understand,” or “gibberish,” says the OED. It seems to now more popularly refer to “a game of jump rope in which players jump over two ropes swung in a crisscross formation by two turners.” According to the OED, this jump rope sense originated in North America around 1895.

shrinkflation

“It is a process known as ‘shrinkflation’, which companies are probably hoping your existential doubt will mask.”

Rhik Samadder, “Mock chocs: is Poundland’s cut-price confectionery the answer to shrinkflation?” The Guardian, July 30, 2017

After the Brexit referendum, says The Guardian, some brands chose to reduce “the size of their most popular items” while keeping prices the same. Shrinkflation is a blend of “shrink” and “inflation.”

positive psychology

“Sandberg — a tragically young widow — outlines how the practices I’ve come to identify with positive psychology helped her emerge from the crippling morass of grief and reclaim a measure of joy in her life.”

Leslie Turnbull, “I skeptically tried practicing gratitude. It completely changed my life,” The Week, July 20, 2017

Positive psychology focuses on people’s “strengths and resiliency,” says The Week, “rather than their negative experiences and wounds.” It was started in the late 1990s by researchers Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Christopher Peterson.

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: starving healthcare, a long day’s journey into work, move over tiger mothers.

skinny repeal

“A so-called skinny repeal bill that would eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s penalties for individuals who go without insurance and companies that don’t offer it. It would also remove a tax on medical-device manufacturers.”

Benjy Sarlin, “Here’s the Lowdown on ‘Skinny Repeal’ of Obamacare,” NBC News, July 25, 2017

A skinny repeal is a slimmed-down version of a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, more popularly known as Obamacare, and “could be a placeholder for a broader legislative plan down the road,” says NBC News.

extreme commuting

“It would be an overstatement to say extreme commuting is a major trend. After all, how many people can withstand 200 hours a month traveling back and forth?”

Bryan Miller, “Extreme Commuting,” The New York Times, July 21, 2017

The New York Times defines extreme commuters as people who travel “a minimum of two hours each way, five days a week” for work, while the United States Census Bureau says they’re workers who travel at least 90 minutes one way. Also called mega or super commuters.

shakerato

“Shakerato, it’s when they put a shot of espresso into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake it, shake it, shake it, until it gets foamy and the ice kind of melts and crystalizes and then they pour it into a goblet. And that’s fantastic!”

Sylvia Poggioli, “Italy’s Coffee Culture Brims With Rituals And Mysterious Rules,” NPR, July 14, 2017

Other Italian coffee lingo includes mano, “the skill of the barista”; caffé’ macchiato, “stained with a swirl of milk”; and caffé corretto, “an espresso corrected with a shot of grappa or cognac.”

harkla

“It’s used to describe that little coughing noise one makes, often before giving a speech or dislodging cinnamon bun pieces from their throat.”

Oliver Gee, “26 untranslatable Swedish words,” The Local, July 20, 2017

More Swedish untranslatables include vobba, “working, even though you’ve taken a (paid) day off because your child is sick”; blåsväder, literally “stormy weather,” figuratively, “trouble”; and jobbig, troublesome, annoying, or difficult.

monster parent

“Chinese cultural pressures to succeed, an increasingly competitive education system and job market, and uncertainty over the future prosperity of Hong Kong have all been cited as factors in the monster parent trend.”

Jessica Mary Turner, “Are you a ‘Monster Parent’? Experts say trend worsening in Hong Kong,” South China Morning Post, July 22, 2017

Move over tiger mothers, the monster parent is here. According to the South China Morning Post, a monster parent has “ultimate control over their child,” discourages “individual thought,” believes “academic results come first,” suggests free time doesn’t exist, and at the same time thinks “their child is always right.” A 2013 study from Chinese University of Hong Kong “warned monster parents were producing a generation of spoiled brats who have an inflated view of their abilities.”

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: a losing streak; an extra nerdy scandal; a somewhat western Japanese dish.

o-fer

“The only way that changes is if the president starts hurting the Republican brand, and judging by the Democrats’ o-fer in the four special congressional elections since Trump’s shocking victory in November, it’s going to take some dirt that sticks to bring down President Trump.”

Anthony L. Fisher, “What will happen to Donald Trump Jr. now?” The Week, July 11, 2017

O-fer or oh for means lack of success after multiple attempts. The phrase comes from sports lingo.

fontgate

“Social media users have derided Sharif for this apparent misstep, coining the hashtag #fontgate.”

Sune Engel Rasmussen and Pádraig Collins, “‘Fontgate’: Microsoft, Wikipedia and the scandal threatening the Pakistani PM,” The Guardian, July 13, 2017

This typography-related scandal involves Mariam Nawaz Sharif, the daughter of Pakistan’s prime minister. Sharif is under investigation regarding a “purchase of high-end London property acquired through offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands,” says The Guardian. February 2006 documents saying she was only a trustee of the company are suspected of being forged since the font, Microsoft Calibri, was only available starting in 2007.

omurice

“Chef Motokichi Yukimura has spent years perfecting ‘omurice,’ an egg omelet that, when cut, unfolds into gooey goodness — can a normal guy figure out how to make it?”

“Man Attempts To Make The Most Difficult Omelet In The World,” Digg, July 2017

Omurice is an example of yoshoku, Western-influenced Japanese cuisine. (Another example is Okinawan taco rice.) Omurice is a kind of gooey omelet made with fried rice and topped with ketchup or gravy. The word is a a blend of the English omelette and rice, and is an example of gairaigo, a loan word in Japanese.

urban lumber

“Wine Glass Bar specializes in producing what’s known as ‘urban lumber’ – usable wood from city-cut trees.”

John Genovese, “The trees in your yard could have a second life,” ABC15, July 12, 2017

The Construction Specifier defines urban lumber as “wood that is obtained from trees located in cities, towns or suburbs not harvested for their timber value, but removed because of insect, disease or circumstance.” Not to be confused with urban lumberjack.

watch your six

“She’s become very good at what’s called watching your six. So if he’s facing one direction say at Walmart looking at the shelf, she’ll be behind him looking at the opposite direction.”

Priscilla Liguori, “Graduation day for VT service dogs,” WCAX, July 18, 2017

Watch your six appears to come from aviation slang, where check your six basically means “look behind you.” This is based on clock positioning, in which 12 o’clock refers to the position right in front of you and six o’clock is the opposite.

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: making quilts in protest; making weird faces during music; making like Bambi.

craftivism

“Craftivism in the US is largely associated with the resurgent feminist movement, but its roots trace back to colonial times.”

Anne Quito, “Trump has awakened an American ‘craftivism’ movement that’s been dormant since the 1980s AIDS quilt,” Quartz, July 5, 2017

Craftivism, a blend of craft and activism, is a form of protest from “subversive embroiderers, yarn bombers, rage knitters, and crusader calligraphers,” says Quartz.

While U.S. craftivism is largely associated with the resurgent feminist movement, it actually started in colonial times when “women revolted against British taxation on textiles by spinning their own yarn and sewing their family’s clothes,” and spies like Molly “Old Mom” Rinker smuggled “messages to George Washington’s troops through balls of yarn.”

bass face

“She also is prone to break into what’s known as ‘bass face,’ a series of gloriously contorted expressions when she’s performing.”

Melena Ryzik, “‘We really felt on fire as a band’: Haim shake off the shackles of the difficult second album,” The Independent, July 11, 2017

Inverse says bass face (or guitar face or singing face) may be “rooted in our evolutionary past.” Back when music was never recorded and always live, it traditionally involved moving, in addition to seeing and hearing. In addition, people are going to be emotionally affected much more by music “than if you’re just merely listening.”

jerkinhead roof

“The home is a classic example of that type of home, with a lovely restored facade (including a mahogany-decked porch) and decorative elements like stained glass windows and what’s known as a jerkinhead roof. (Yes, really.)”

Amy Plitt, “Lovely Midwood Victorian with summer-ready front porch seeks $1.75M,” Curbed, July 10, 2017

Jerkinhead refers to the end of a roof that’s hipped, or sloped, for only part of its height, leaving a truncated gable. The Oxford English Dictionary says jerkin might come from jerking, with the idea that the slope of the roof has been jerkily interrupted.

infobesity

“Infobesity, a widespread problem, can be managed by balancing your diet. Try just reading an article without checking text messages or listening to music.”

Ephrat Livni, “If information overload is stressing you out, go on a silence diet,” Quartz, July 9, 2017

This portmanteau of information and obesity refers to information overload or overconsumption.

fawn response

“The fawn response refers to the inclination to cooperate or submit oneself to one’s threat or captor.”

Katie Heaney, “When Stress Makes You Fall Asleep,” New York Magazine, July 11, 2017

Some believe the classic “fight or flight” response to stress is oversimplified, says New York Magazine. Other “Fs” include the fawn response; freezing like a deer in headlights; flooding, or being flooded with emotions; and fatigue.

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: the art of pointing; an adorable monkey term; tomayto, tomahto, let’s call the whole thing Canadian English.

shisa kanko

“The pointing itself originates from Asia. As detailed in an Atlas Obscura story, the technique is called shisa kanko.”

“Conduct Yourself,” Topic, June 2017

If you’ve ever ridden a New York subway, you might have noticed the conductor pointing. What they’re pointing at is a zebraboard, says Topic, “a black-and-white sign that aligns perfectly” with their “window after the train has pulled all the way into the station.” By pointing at the zebraboard, they make sure the “station platform is lined up alongside the full length of the train” before they open the doors, or else “it’s likely that some passengers would exit directly onto the tracks.”

Shisa kanko, which translates from Japanese as pointing and calling, is a more elaborate set of conductor gestures and calls. See some shisa kanko in action.

drapetomania

“A Mississippi psychiatrist in the 19th century proposed that slaves who attempted escape suffered from ‘drapetomania.’”

Joseph Frankel, “Psychics Who Hear Voices Could Be Onto Something,” The Atlantic, June 27, 2017

Drapetomania, the overwhelming urge to run away, is a pseudo-disease devised by physician Samuel A. Cartwright. The term comes from the Greek words drapetes, meaning “escapees” or “runaways,” and mania, “madness.”

McModern

“Though McModerns are commonly found in the places where modernism itself thrives—indoor-outdoor climates like the West Coast and the Southwest, and near liberal cities on the East Coast—they are also beginning to pop up in burgeoning tech hotbeds south of the Mason-Dixon, such as central North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia.”

Kate Wagner, “The rise of the McModern,” Curbed, June 30, 2017

The term McModern plays off McMansion, a large and imposing house regarded as ostentatious and lacking architecture integrity. The earliest citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1990: “The move-up homes trumpeted by builders are ‘McMansions—a very pale version of the American dream,’ he said.”

monkey dumpling

“When temperatures drop, macaques often huddle together to pool their body heat, forming what’s known as a saru dango, or ‘monkey dumpling.’”

Alan Taylor, “Winners of the BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition,” The Atlantic, June 29, 2017

The term saru dango is Japanese in origin, where saru means monkey and dango refers to a sweet dumpling made of sticky rice and often eaten three or more on a stick.

Canadian Dainty

“The Canadian Dainty accent is similar to the Mid-Atlantic accent, native to Old Hollywood, which melded American English with British pronunciation.”

Lakshine Sathiyanathan, “Some Canadians used to speak with a quasi-British accent called Canadian Dainty,” CBC News, July 1, 2017

Canadian Dainty, a term coined by linguist Jack Chambers, is a “quasi-British accent,” says CBC, that’s “now mostly extinct.” In the 19th century, “British etiquette and speech were perceived as superior,” and so during the Victorian era, “children were taught to  swap native Canadian pronunciation for the British counterpart.” Tomahto for tomayto, for example, and shed-yool for schedule.

Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: how to vote a lot, how a cult works, how to lose a mistress.

vote-a-rama

“Senate budget rules call for what’s known as a ‘vote-a-rama’ where members of either party offer amendments in a single session.”

Russell Berman, “What’s in the Senate Republican Health-Care Bill,” The Atlantic, June 22, 2017

A vote-a-rama, says The Atlantic, is when “the Senate holds flurries of votes on budget resolutions.” Debate on these bills is limited to 20 hours, and “the resolutions can’t be filibustered, so the only way to draw the process out is to offer amendments,” which, after the debate, “come in rapid fire,” sometimes in the dozens. If the no-debating rule is waived, each side is allowed a whopping 30 seconds to do so.

The term seems to have been coined by Keith Hennessey, former Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy and Director of the U.S. National Economic Council. The suffix –orama, meaning “that which is seen, a sight,” is a back-formation of the words like panorama and diorama. The United States Senate has documented vote-a-ramas going back to 1977.

totalism

“Totalism works because ordinary people – at least those without prior knowledge of the controlling methods of totalism – are subject to the coercive manipulations that leaders employ.”

Alexandra Stein, “How totalism works,” Aeon, June 20, 2017

A totalist structure, says Aeon, is made up of five features. One, the “leader is both charismatic and authoritarian.” Two, the leader rules over a structure that’s “isolating, steeply hierarchical and closed.” The third feature is a “historical totality that has no beginning, middle or end” and an exclusive belief system “controlled entirely by the leader.” Fourth, the leader must “tap fear,” and fifth is the creation of deployable followers “who override their own survival needs and autonomy in the service of the group.”

uffgevva

“Amish culture values deference to others and uffgevva – giving up to the group.”

Donald B. Kraybill, “Slow Time Is God’s Time,” Vestoj, June 2017

In his book, The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World, Kraybill describes uffgevva as “surrendering selfish interests and desires,” which involves “yielding one’s personal will to God’s will,” and submitting to the authority and wisdom of the community.

drip dickey

“To avoid spilling even one drop, you order a year’s supply of what’s known as drip dickeys, which are special collars placed around the neck of wine bottles.”

Al Vuona, “Symptoms and signs of a true wine geek,” Telegram, June 22, 2017

Drip dickey is a brand of wine collar, an accessory that goes around the bottle’s neck to prevent dripping and staining. A dickey — also spelled dicky — can refer to a detachable shirt front or a shirt collar. The origin isn’t clear except that the word might be a diminutive of the name Dick.

mistress dispeller

“Yu, a gentle-looking man in his early forties, with the placid demeanor of a yoga instructor, works as a mistress dispeller, a job that barely existed a decade ago but is becoming common in major Chinese cities.”

Jiayang Fan, “China’s Mistress Dispellers,” The New Yorker, June 26, 2017

Mistress dispellers, says The New York Times, “specialize in ending affairs between married men and their extramarital lovers.” Hired by “a scorned wife” for upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, their services include coaching “women on how to save their marriages” and subtly infiltrating “the mistress’s life, winning her friendship and trust in an attempt to break up the affair.”

In Chinese, a mistress is known as a xiao san, says The New Yorker, or “little third,” which can mean “everything from a partner in a casual affair to a long-term ‘kept woman.’” Besides faking a friendship, other mistress-dispelling methods include payoffs, public shaming, a sudden job transfer, and seduction by a male mistress dispeller.