Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox runs The World's language desk. He reports and edits stories about the globalization of English, the bilingual brain, translation technology and more. He also hosts The World's podcast on language, The World in Words.

A Dubious Award for the Squeezed Middle

November 28, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment
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The Oxford English Dictionary has revealed its word of the year: squeezed middle (hey, that’s two words!). Don’t ask me to define it. British Labor leader Ed Miliband ran into trouble doing that. Suffice to say, it refers to a class of people, who would appear to make up more than 90% of the population– and therefore the electorate. The implication is that despite their huge numbers, they are being economically squeezed– in a vise conspiratorially operated by the very rich and the very poor.

In previous years, OED editors have named a US word and a UK word. American English and British English are, after all, an ocean apart. This year, squeezed middle is the global winner, which is odd. As political rhetoric– which is all this phrase really is– it’s been far more popular in the UK than in the US.

Also-rans this year include Arab Spring, occupy, clicktivism, bunga bunga and tiger mother.

I’m not sure what the Pakistan government’s position might be on any of those words. (I’m guessing they’d have a problem with bunga bunga.) But in the pod, we take a look at the government’s move– now shelved– two ban nearly two thousand words from text messaging. Most of the words are sexually frank, the usual nasty stuff. But many others are mild or just bizarre: flatulence, period, athlete’s foot, monkey crotch. Urdu expressions meaning nonsense (buckwaas) and foolish (bewakoof) would also have been banned.

We round off the pod with a list of mainly invented words. These appear on the title track to Kate Bush’s new album, 50 Words For Snow. Bush knows there are not 50 words for snow, in English or any other language. (Eskimo languages are often credited with having up to 23 words for snow; they don’t.) Bush plays on this myth by having collaborator Stephen Fry enunciate 50 words. Some are poetic English: drifting, swans-a melting, vanilla swarm. Some are just poetic: terrablizza, sleetspoot’n. psychohail, spangladasha. All these words, says Bush in the pod, had to her “a sense os meaning something that was evocative of snow.”

Discussion

2 comments for “A Dubious Award for the Squeezed Middle”

  • Sarah Martin

    I’m a student in intercultural communications at NVCC.

    I am not at all a fan of “squeezed middle” as the word of the year, especially not for the entire world. The squeezed middle for the UK or especially the US is not at all descriptive of most of the population of the world. I also agree with the man who said that it doesn’t have much longevity. It is so vague as to actively repulse people who wouldn’t consider themselves as the majority or related economically to other people below the 90th percentile.

    I would have vastly preferred Arab spring-that actually has had a global influence.

  • Sarah Martin

    I’m in intercultural communications at NVCC.

    I’ve never heard the term “esquimos have fifty word for snow,” but I think there are more ways to talk about snow in aboriginal languages than there would be in English. English would have more words for love or nowadays for computer usage.Stephen Fry _does_ have an incredibly beautiful voice. I’m very amused by this Bush’s idea of making up words and making them seem as important as possible.