Double-screening

A new verb: I heard this for the first time a couple of weeks or so ago (January 2018) on BBC Radio 4. 

Are you familiar with it: ...'to double-screen'? Perhaps you do it yourself. In fact, you probably do!

As explained by the radio commentator it means when people are watching the TV, live TV, but are simultaneously online, especially (it seems) on social media, in touch with their friends and the world, and quite possibly also commenting on the programme they’re watching in their various different locations. 

The Radio 4 programme was about the impact of social media, algorithms and so on, on people’s opinions and politics, with particular reference to the British General Election on June 8^th 2017. The commentators were arguing that Yes many people watch BBC's 'Question Time', and may or may not be influenced by discussion on it, but that these viewers are also discussing the topics at the same time with their friends online, via their other devices: double-screening.

The language moves on!

Othering

Back in July 2016, so about 18 months ago, I wrote this about a 'new-to-me' use of the word 'other', as a verb:

I was fascinated recently to learn that 'other' is now being used—by sociologists, psychologists and so on—as a verb, and we also now have the word 'otherness'. 'Othering', it turns out, is a really useful verb. It describes how we tend to talk about, and actively relate to, anyone who we feel is 'not in our group'. It doesn't only have to include (for example) 'foreigners'—it's absolutely anyone who we feel is 'different' from ourselves.

Well I was just as fascinated today, 15th January 2018, to hear it being used on a BBC Radio 4 discussion programme, 'Start the Week' by an author, Afua Hirsch, talking, amongst other things, about her book BRIT (ish). On Race, Identity and Belonging. She spoke of how, as a mixed heritage girl (mother from Ghana, and father a white British man with Jewish heritage) growing up in white Caucasian Wimbledon, she was always perceived as different, as other. Her school friends would tell her how they didn't view her as any different from them, how they thought of her as white... They othered her, even while they felt they were showing how much they liked and accepted her.

So the word 'other', used as a verb, is clearly well and truly out of the confines of sociology and anthropology – it has escaped from academe and is flying free in the wide world of everyday English.  

I had read about othering once or twice prior to hearing it this morning, but this is the first time I've heard it used with ease and conviction, and with a clear and strong effect, with no need to explain or define it. 

I see, however, that Microsoft Word still marks it with the wiggly red line of a spelling mistake, so it’s obviously not yet in the Microsoft dictionary.

But it is definitely out there, in the spoken, everyday world.

Good. It's a very helpful coinage. It’s a terrible shame we need such a word, but well done, sociologists, for this neologistic usage!

‘Start the Week’ 15.01.2018   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09lw30p  with presenter Tom Sutcliffe, discussing three books with their authors:

Brit(ish), On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1112508/brit-ish/

A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey - Penguin Books Australia

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/a-long-way-from-home-9780143787075

In Europe by Geert Mak | PenguinRandomHouse.com

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/...europe...geert-mak/9780307280572/

Flexitarian: the UK’s food culture is on the move!

Words are great social indicators.

I’ve just signed an online petition calling for a UK food company to include a vegan (ie a non-meat/fish/poultry) option in their sausage rolls. The petition calls on ‘vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian’ people to sign the petition. Flexitarian?

It really shows how UK views and eating/food culture is changing: so many terms are now commonly used to indicate what people eat, alongside the traditional terms 'omnivore' and 'carnivore'. I hadn't heard of 'flexitarian' until I saw this petition, but friends of ours refer to themselves as ‘pescatarians’, meaning they are ‘veggies' (i.e. the colloquial form of 'vegetarians') who also eat fish.  

This extract from the HuffPost’s Blog (2011) explains the word pretty well:

You may be wondering, “What is a pescetarian?” Pescetarianism, or pesco-vegetarianism, means being vegetarian while still including seafood in your diet. One still cuts out red meat, pork, poultry, etc. from his or her diet like a vegetarian, but does not cut out fish and other seafood.*

And now 'flexitarian', a word completely new to me in January 2018 – though I'm not sure how it's escaped me for so long, as it's been pretty current for a while it seems! This is what the Collins Dictionary tells me:

Flexitarian: 

a person who eats a predominantly vegetarian diet, but who eats meat or fish occasionally.   

Adjective:   of or relating to a flexitarian, eg. flexitarian fare

Derived forms: flexitarianism (ˌflexiˈtarianˌism) noun

Word origin of 'flexitarian' C21: from flexi(ble) + (vege)tarian **

 But the odd thing that I’ve always wrestled with (linguistically speaking) is the use of the word ‘vegetarian’ for people who eat not only vegetables, but also animal-based products like cheese, yoghurt, eggs, and so on. I’m always momentarily confused when I see, for instance, ‘omelette’ or ‘baked red onion and goat’s cheese tart’ marked with a large V for Vegetarian. Bizarre, I always think!

However, it’s not as surprising as what as I saw last summer at a Greek taverna on a lovely Cycladean island.  Even if you know the words in Greek, the Greek script is very tricky to read. So the menu had a helpful English section. But heading up the Vegetarian Section was, in bold and black, the word “Snails”.  We had to smile: well, it is true, I suppose, that snails basically consist of lettuce!  ;)

* https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chloe-spencer/pescetarianism_b_956965.html  (accessed 15.01.2018)

** Collins English Dictionary

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/flexitarian

(accessed 29.01.2018)

"Euro culture snub"

... and similar phrases using the word 'snub' or 'snubbed', appeared recently as part of some headlines and articles in UK newspapers in November and December 2017. 

These headlines revolved around the point that UK cities would no longer be eligible to enter for the competition to be 'European Capital of Culture' – which is an obvious corollary of leaving the EU, though possibly to some who voted Leave, an upsetting and unintended consequence. For example, the cities of Belfast, Derry/Londonderry and Dundee will all have their bids to be European Capital of Culture scuppered by the fallout from Brexit. When a city gains this status, it also gains millions of pounds / euros of investment and tourist income, so it is far more than just a title: it's extremely valuable. It's a really big deal.

One newspaper that used the word 'snub' was the Dundee Evening Telegraph: "Dundee 2023 snub: we're absolutely gutted about this, it's like we've been jilted at the altar."* With this colourful simile to round it off, it's quite a dramatic headline!

"Belfast and Derry councils urge Westminster to fight EU on culture snub" was another headline, Dec 1st, 2017 in the Belfast Telegraph. **

I noticed this use of the word 'snub' in this European Capital of Culture contest, and thought it was interesting how one word – in this case ‘snub’– can say so much. It suggests disrespect, an insult – it suggests a kind of wrong has been perpetrated on the one ‘snubbed’, in this case on whole cities of people. 

Well, the UK is exiting the EU, by its (i.e. the UK's) own volition, and therefore is exiting all parts of the EU club, including the arts / cultural part. That, surely, stands to reason.

So who is snubbing who? The newspapers were claiming, by the use of this one small word, that the UK is somehow being treated with disrespect – and, implicitly, unfairly. The UK is leaving the EU – but the newspapers couldn’t resist putting a 'spin' on this story by suggesting the EU is treating the UK badly in no longer allowing the UK to take part in the European City of Culture scheme.

Yet the UK is turning its back on the EU. Surely the 'snub' is therefore the other way round?

Perhaps the European Capital of Culture scheme is the ‘cake’ that some British politicians claimed we could still ‘have’ after ‘eating’ it...?

It's fascinating how one small word can suggest so much.

to snub someone: verb (T) to insult someone by not giving them any attention or treating them as if they are not important.

Eg. I think she felt snubbed because Anthony hadn’t bothered to introduce himself.

Or used as a noun: eg. I simply didn’t recognise her and apparently she took it as a snub.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/snub  (accessed 15.01.2018)

snub etymology: Middle English snibben, snubben, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse snubba to scold, Swedish dialect snubba to reproach, cut off

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snub (accessed 15.01.2018)

I like this snippet of information: that in the use of the phrase 'snub-nosed' the connecting notion is of being cut short:

adj.   "short and turned up," 1725, in snub-nosed, from snub (v.)

snub (n) "a rebuke, an intentional slight," 1530s, from snub (v.).

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/snub  (accessed 15.01.2018, Online Etymological Dictionary, 2010 Douglas Harper)

put a spin on something

Spin: singular noun. If someone puts a certain spin on an event or situation, they interpret it and try to present it in a particular way [informal]

Eg. He interpreted the vote as support for the constitution and that is the spin his supporters are putting on the results today.

...the wholly improper political spin given to the report, particularly by The New York Times.

Synonyms: bias, prejudice, slant, turn

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/spin (accessed 15.01.2018)

* https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/dundee-2023-snub-absolutely-gutted-like-weve-jilted-altar/ (accessed 15.01.2018)

** https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/belfast-and-derry-councils-urge-westminster-to-fight-eu-on-culture-snub-36368336.html (accessed 15.01.2018)