As a new year begins, you can’t help but look back on the one just passed: its gains and losses, its highs and lows, the memorable moments and those best forgotten.
So why not do the same for the words and terms that entered our lives – or at least the dictionaries – in 2011?* You can make your own mind up about which of those categories these words fall into, but – more to the point – can you pick the correct definition for each from the choices below?
Let us know how you got on. Have you used any of the terms? (We’ve already heard from a keen cricketer about an alternative meaning for one of them.) If not, will you be adding any of them to your vocabulary? And which ones (if any) are you hoping to forget long before the year is out?
* Words taken from 2011 entries in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Concise Oxford English Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary
And if that’s put you in a quizzing mood, why not pit yourself against our fiendish spelling test?
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Nice opportunity to put down my bucket of nurdles and enjoy some brain candy on lunch, while my noobish helicopter boss is away on a training course.
Barry: I’m glad you enjoyed it! (I think that’s what you were saying.)
Nurdle is an old cricketing term.
http://www.amazon.com/Nicely-Nurdled-Sir-Christopher-Lee/dp/0593016564
Yes, so it would seem! These days, ‘nurdle’ is a homonym (has more than one meaning). I wonder if that counts as a promotion.
Great blog! A very enjoyable read.
Thank you, Tessa! How did you get on?
Cool quiz. (I got 9/10, but I’m sure that was due to some luck – or, at best, educated guessing.