AskOxford: Bubbling May 2008

It has been more than six months since the last Bubbling Under article, so you lucky AskOxford readers are overdue another gambol through the wonderful world of shiny new words. So, with no further ado, let's begin.

In March, French President Sarkozy and his luminous new wife, Carla Bruni, visited the UK. Much was made of the visit in the press on both sides of the channel, and Oxford's English language monitoring program noticed a spike in the use of compounds using entente, including entente nucleaire, entente amicable, and entente formidable; all of these are reminiscent of entente cordiale, which was first recorded in the OED back in 1844. In amongst this outpouring of Franco-British understanding, there was also a developing attraction between the British public and Carla Bruni, who, it appeared, could do no wrong. In fact, there was a palpable sense of Carlamania amongst the British press.

Over in the realm of the internet, the last few months have been somewhat fertile. Humorously, there is the growing fad of rickrolling. This is a variant of duckrolling, in which a net hyperlink supposedly to a celebrity or news page leads instead to a picture of a duck with wheels. In this instance, the link leads instead to videos of the Rick Astley video for 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. Rickrolling has also spread to the real world, with people organising rickroll events; somewhat like the flashmob phenomenon — in which people suddenly gather in a public place, perform a brief unusual action, then disperse — except the crowd begin to sing Astley's song, often to the irritation of innocent members of the public. Poor folk.

From the ridiculous to the mildly more ridiculous. Are any of you, dear readers, a whale? Not a cetacean, but an individual with over 1,000 'friends' on Facebook. Which average person knows 1,000 people well enough to call them friends? How many? Alternatively, amongst the online gamers reading this, have you ever come up against a griefer, someone who spends their time online harassing others? It's a shame that malevolence can garner anonymity on the web.

And so, we near the end for this article. One last little stop in nano-land, where, joining such terms as nanoscale and nanoscopic, there is now nanocide, a type of pesticide created by nanotechnology, and nanofood, food produced using nanotechnology techniques during cultivation, production, etc. (not really little food).

Keep an eye out for any new and/or strange flucuations in the language, and let us know at askoxford@oup.com.