Welcome to Word Buzz Wednesday, your go-to place for the most interesting words of the week. The latest: a prison lingua franca, an urban ruins explorer, not procrastination.
full understand
A: yes, one man is come for alibaba my ausweis. I am speak him finish. after he is finish. understand?
B: full understand.
Matt Broomfield, “‘Full understand’: The new language of the Lesvos refugee camp,” NewStatesman, November 20, 2017
Full understand is an example of “the lingua franca of Moria prison camp and its environs,” says NewStatesman, “spoken between asylum-seekers from formerly-colonised states as disparate as Iraq, Uganda, Pakistan and Burma.” A lingua franca is “a medium of communication between peoples of different languages.”
haikyoist
“Shane Thoms is what’s known as a ‘haikyoist.’”
Chris Weller, “Photos of abandoned Japanese ruins reveal an eerie, post-apocalyptic world,” AOL, November 24, 2017
A haikyoist is an urban explorer and comes from the Japanese “haikyo,” says AOL, “which literally means ‘ruins’ but can also mean urban exploration.”
Viking weave
“Using copper wire, she creates what’s called a ‘Viking weave.’”
Ben Calwell, “Edgewood Summit sponsoring annual Santa’s Workshop,” Kanawha Metro, November 24, 2017
A Viking weave involves a “long piece of wire” woven “around a dowel rod,” according to Kanawha Metro. It seems to be so called because of the use of a lucet, a tool believed to date back to Medieval and Viking times.
purposeful delay
“Pychyl would similarly argue that a purposeful delay is not procrastination.”
Lila MacLellan, “The concept of productive procrastination is a myth,” Quartz, November 28, 2017
Unlike procrastination, which is unwanted, not deliberate, and doesn’t always have positive outcomes, purposeful delay is deliberate and has positive outcomes, says Quartz. It’s “commonly required when a person needs to … think about an issue or creative work before getting down to the act of writing or producing something.”
levidrome
“Levi decided to invent one, and thus, ‘levidrome’ (pronounced ‘leh-vee-drome’) was born.”
“What is a ‘levidrome?’ Merriam-Webster recognizes new word in honor of little boy,” Fox 4, November 27, 2017
While a palindrome is a word that’s spelled the same backward and forward, a levidrome — named for its 3-year old inventor, Levi Budd — is a word that forms a new word when spelled backward. A synonym for levidrome is semordnilap, which is “palindrome” spelled backward and was first used around 1961.