# New words or phrases our language needs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759 "2020-03-01T22:22:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/21 "2020-03-10T16:31:32Z")
Yeah, but we have a word to describe a limp. We need a short word to describe raising one shoulders to one’ ears in response to cold weather. And it does rhyme with purple. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/22 "2020-03-10T16:32:07Z")
Missed the edit - here is that [snippet](https://youtu.be/t-dLuu-ErnI?t=48) from QI. j ETA > [@](#): > > We need a short word to describe raising one shoulders to one’ ears in response to cold weather. Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/23 "2020-03-11T01:05:15Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > A new verb: _ **to lobster** _. Usually used in the form _ **to be lobstered** _. > > Definition: to end up in a bad situation by a failure to recognize an extensive but near imperceptible worsening of you circumstances. > j Yes! I’ve been using the analogy of the frog in the pot of boiling water to describe a particular circumstance I’m currently dealing with. Much easier to say “I got lobstered.” > [@madmonk28](#): > > We need a verb for the act of trying to tie your shoe while holding a dog on a leash that is distracted by a squirrel. ”Parenting.” Now if we only had a word for the times when you think of a clever retort only after it’s too late to use it… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/24 "2020-03-11T03:46:25Z")
> [@BeagleJesus](#): > > We need a new 1 syllable word to describe human females of all ages that doesn’t have any misogynistic undertones (like girl) and doesn’t sound antiquated (like gal). Lass ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/25 "2020-03-12T02:11:30Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Similarly but not the same thing…tech that is supposed to be more advanced but actually makes things harder. Like…an electronic trashcan?? Hello? I could have just lifted the lid, or used the foot pedal thing but now I have to stand here and try and figure this thing out. I saw an example of this recently, at the Mall. Time was, there would be a large display board just inside the main entrances with a map of the mall and a directory below the map. I always found it fairly quick and easy to find any store in the mall that I wanted. Last week, I went to that Mall again. (I don’t go there often.) Now in place of the large display board was an equally large (perhaps 6 ft high by 3 ft wide) computer touch-screen. The main display was a vague illustration of the mall, with two buttons “Browse” and “Search” and a few other buttons along the side with cryptic icons. Finding one’s way around the mall apparently would require some elaborate navigation around this multi-view on-screen site. I managed to find the store I was looking for very quickly quite by accident. I still don’t know what most of those buttons with the cryptic icons do or even what’s the difference between “Browse” and “Search”, and I didn’t spend any extra time playing with it to learn how it all works. ---
**Author:** ![DerNils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerNils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerNils)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/26 "2020-03-12T12:57:23Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > If there’s a word for something which is designed to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, then I don’t know it. And we really need a word, because these things are already all over the place and they’re proliferating. Those ridiculous shelves in refrigerators which consist of a row of circular holes that you’re supposed to place eggs in to keep them safe and stop them rolling about. You know, the eggs that come in an egg box? Yeah, those eggs. Or the key that you used to be able to buy that you attached to one end of a toothpaste tube , so that by turning the key _you could squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube_. Stone me, [you can still get them](https://www.amazon.co.uk/VWH-Aluminum-Toothpaste-Squeezers-Squeezer/dp/B07C5WZMDS/ref=asc_df_B07C5WZMDS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=394229377131&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4895492235027323320&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006661&hvtargid=pla-877134500125&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=84693556791&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=394229377131&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4895492235027323320&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006661&hvtargid=pla-877134500125). > > Why isn’t there a word for this? > > j I think [Shindogu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu) is your closest call, even though I seem to remember it stops being a shindogu once you Can actually buy it. But ever since we discovered this in a book collecting various examples, my wife and I surely use it that way. Examples from the books include: A combined household duster and cocktail-shaker, for the housewife who wants to reward herself as she is going along. The all-day tissue dispenser, which is basically a toilet roll fixed on top of a hat, for hay fever sufferers. Duster slippers for cats, so they can help out with the housework. The all-over plastic bathing suit, to enable people who suffer from aquaphobia to swim without coming into contact with water. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/27 "2020-03-12T13:45:43Z")
> [@DerNils](#): > > I think [Shindogu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chind%C5%8Dgu) is your closest call, even though I seem to remember it stops being a shindogu once you Can actually buy it. But ever since we discovered this in a book collecting various examples, my wife and I surely use it that way. > > Examples from the books include: > > A combined household duster and cocktail-shaker, for the housewife who wants to reward herself as she is going along. > The all-day tissue dispenser, which is basically a toilet roll fixed on top of a hat, for hay fever sufferers. > Duster slippers for cats, so they can help out with the housework. > The all-over plastic bathing suit, to enable people who suffer from aquaphobia to swim without coming into contact with water. Thank you! My vocabulary has just been expanded by 1. (What’s the word for a word that you always wanted to exist and that you subsequently find out does?) > [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Now if we only had a word for the times when you think of a clever retort only after it’s too late to use it… 😃 :dubious: j ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/28 "2020-03-12T15:29:08Z")
I’m glad someone invented “yeet”, we really needed an opposite to “yoink”. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/29 "2020-03-20T00:45:22Z")
A complete set of gender neutral pronouns. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/30 "2020-03-22T11:03:33Z")
Is there a word for: _Performing an action which is presented as being for the greater good but which is, in reality, done purely out of self interest?_ (Also the noun form to describe such an act. There’s a lot of that going on at the moment.) j ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759/31 "2020-03-22T16:48:10Z")
A new noun: **Penitentiary Walk** Definition: In a public space such as a park or a well-used trail, a walk in which each group maintains a safe and polite distance (typically at least 10 meters) between itself and the group ahead. Example of use: _Social distancing was giving us cabin fever - we had to get out of he house, so we went for a penitentiary walk beside the canal._ Also the corresponding verb,\*\* to penitentiary walk\*\* - to walk as described above. j [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-or-phrases-our-language-needs/848759.md?page=1)