語言的日新月異

Potty-mouthed? New English words are just lush

LONDON (Reuters) - Do chuggers bother you when you want to rock up to a restaurant with your cockapoo to hoover a supersized ruby murray?

Confused? Then you need to refer to the new Oxford Dictionary of English to understand a host of new words that appear for the first time in its latest edition.

Among the new entries are "potty-mouthed" (meaning using or characterized by bad language), "lush" (very good) and "scopophilia" (sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity).

Some words, such as "demographic" (a particular sector of a population) have become commonplace but only now make it into the dictionary. They are joined by those emerging from new technology like "phishing" (fraudulently sending emails purporting to be from reputable firms to get individuals to reveal personal details).

Many of the new words are simply formed by mixing two others together, such as charity and mugger making "chugger" (someone who approaches passers-by in the street asking for donations for a charity) and "labradoodle" (a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle).

"To suit the pace of our lifestyle today there is a growing tendency to mix words together to make entirely new ones called blends," the dictionary researchers said.

They also said there were now 350 ways of insulting someone -- from "chucklehead" to "muppet" -- ten times more than there were complimentary expressions, while there were 50 words for good-looking women, there were only about 20 for men.

And for those without a dictionary to hand, "rock up" means arrive, "cockapoo" is a mix between a cocker spaniel dog and a poodle, "hoover" means to eat omething quickly, and "ruby murray" is rhyming slang for a curry.

See also Merriam-Webster Asks: What's Your Favorite Word (That's Not in the Dictionary)?

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Review Question:
My main beef about the job is that I have to work on Saturdays.
這裡的beef的意思是？