A Lexicon of Neologisms.  Mikhail Epstein (Emory University)

 

                Society

 

 

crazy cracy, or crazy-cracy n  (crazy +  cracy, Gr kratos, power, as in democracy) – a scornful name for any type of power or political regime. 

 

It does not matter for which higher goal you kill people. Democracy, autocracy, aristocracy… All these crazy cracies are not worth a single human life. 

 

Matthew has decided to launch a new political movement, maybe even a party. He believes that one more crazy-cracy will make a difference among all those we already have on the Earth.

 

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deadvertise  v  (dead + advertise) –  to advertise and promote political causes by death.

 

Terrorism is nothing but the art of deadvertising.

 

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dreadvertise  v (dread + advertise)  –  to advertise by dread, to engage in military propaganda.

 

There are skilled dreadvertisers in our government.

 

                         

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the dooming 2000s  - a nickname for our decade.

 

The booming 1990s, the dooming 2000s.

                                                              

American culture likes to divide itself into decades: the prosperous fifties, the rebellious sixties, the egoistic seventies, the greedy eighties, the booming ninetees.  Finally, the dooming 2000s.

 

 

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econopoeia n (economy, from Gr oikos, house, and nomos, management + Gr poiein, to make or compose; cf. poetry,  mythopoeia onomatopoeia) – creative economy, the romantic, poetic side of market, commerce and business.

 

As a  manager, he has a style of his own that he calls "econopoeia." He believes that advertising is the most  creative business in the world, and he regrets he cannot hire Shakespeare to write slogans for his company.

 

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the oopsies, or OOpsies (from the interjection oops, whoops, usually  uttered after stumbling, making an error, etc.) – a nickname for the 2000s.

 

 Two ending zeroes are inscribed in this interjection of surprise and dismay - oops. The 2000s is the decade of big failures, grave mistakes and their euphemistic recognition.  We  failed to detect  the terrorist plot early enough to avert it – oops. We didn't succeed in capturing our main enemies – oops.   We haven't found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and thus the war has no justification   –  oops. We promised democracy to Iraqies but failed to gain their support - oops.  Thus, 2000-psies, or OOpsies, or oopsies.

 

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the oozies, or OOzies (from oozy, full of or like ooze, slimy) - a nickname for the 2000s.

 

As the 1990s came to a close, the experts made their predictions. We would call the 2000s the aughts or the naughts or the zeros or the ohs or maybe even the ohs-ohs…. It turns out we have found no clear definition. The substance of our time is slimy, slippery, sticky, as soft mud. But this failure of definition creates a definition of its own. We live in the OOzy decade. The 200Os are OOzies.

 

                 

                  PreDictionary. A Lexicon of Neologisms