The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

open' (of courts, proceedings, etc.) and -nost' '-ness'.

History and Usage: The word has been used in Russian for several centuries, but only acquired its more specialized political meaning in the Soviet period. It was used in the context of freedom of information by Lenin, and by the dissident writer Solzhenitsyn in an open letter to the Writers' Union in November 1969. Glasnost did not become the subject of serious public debate even within the Soviet Union until January 1985, when an editorial in the state newspaper Izvestiya requested letters on the subject. Many were published, most lamenting the lack of basic information--from bus timetables to the reasons

for bureaucratic actions--in Soviet society.

When Mikhail Gorbachev used the word in his speech accepting the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party in March 1985, glasnost became one of the keywords taken up by the

international press to describe his reforming regime. He said

We are committed to expand glasnost in the work of Party, Soviet, State, and public organizations. V. I. Lenin said that the State is made strong through the awareness of the masses; our practice has fully confirmed this conclusion.

At first, journalists attempted to translate the Russian word, using 'publicity' or 'openness'. Soon, though, it became clear that no single English word could sum up the full significance of the Russian meaning, and the Russian word itself became one of the most-used political words of 1986-7. It was not long before it came to be applied to public accountability in general and to the relaxation of political regimes in other parts of the world, acquiring in English a rather broader meaning than in its original language, where the emphasis is still very much on the 'right to know' of the Soviet public. It has quickly established its place in English, generating a number of derivatives, some jocular (glasnostrum, glasnostalgia), some more serious (glasnostian, glasnostic, glasnostified), while others remain

true to its Russian roots (glasnostnik).

Exposes of corruption, shortages and economic problems appear virtually daily in the [Soviet] press. It is a

change that became evident after Mikhail S. Gorbachev

came to office last March and called for more 'glasnost', or openness, in covering domestic affairs.

New York Times 22 Feb. 1986, section 1, p. 2

Life is still hard under glasnost, Vietnamese-style.

headline in Los Angeles Times 30 May 1987, section 1, p. 4

Such recognition of an author [Alexander Solzhenitsyn] once officially scorned as an enemy of the people is a significant marker of the glasnostian literary thaw.

Daily Telegraph 4 Aug. 1988, p. 1

See also perestroika

gleaming the cube

(Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture) see skateboarding

glitch noun and verb (Science and Technology)

In slang (originally in the US):

noun: A snag, a hitch or hold-up; a technical error.

intransitive verb: To malfunction or go wrong; to suffer a 'hiccup'.

Etymology: A figurative use of a word that originally (in the early sixties) meant 'a surge of current'--an occurrence which could lead to unpredictable behaviour from electronic instruments or even complete crashes of computer systems. The word's ultimate origins are rather obscure: it has been claimed that it is borrowed from Yiddish glitsch, which means 'a slip'

in its literal sense of losing one's footing, but this theory has been discredited.

History and Usage: As mentioned above, glitch was first used in the early sixties, mainly in the slang of people involved in the US space programme. From there it was taken into computing slang, and by the early eighties had become a fashionable word

in the general press for any kind of snag or hold-up, as well as developing more specialized meanings in astronomy and audio recording. It is now used freely in the media in the UK as well as the US, but is still regarded as an Americanism by many British readers. Glitch has a derived adjective glitchy which can be used of programs, systems, etc. that are particularly prone to malfunction.

Elsewhere, equipment glitches in the Iranian desert

force American commandos to abort the mission to rescue 53 hostages in Tehran.

Life Fall 1989, p. 15

The only glitch in the whole Ararat countdown was the failure to get the Project recognized as a charitable institution.

Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10« Chapters (1989), p. 267

No matter how carefully I set the unit up it always glitched a little, especially when using the Diatonic Shift.

Music Technology Apr. 1990, p. 42

glitterati

plural noun (Lifestyle and Leisure)

In media slang (originally in the US): the celebrities or 'glittering stars' of fashionable society, especially those from the world of literature and entertainment.

Etymology: Formed by telescoping glitter and literati (the people who form the literate, educated ‚lite) into a blend.

History and Usage: A name for the group once known as the beautiful people or jet set, glitterati became a popular term in the media in the late seventies and early eighties, when conspicuous glitter especially characterized the stars of show business (see glitzy below). The punning name glitterati had in fact been coined in Time magazine as long ago as 1956, in an

article about a party for publicity-conscious editors:

Bobbing and weaving about the premises are a passel of New York glitterati. There is a highbrow editor of a popular magazine who is keen on starting a new literary journal and wants Tom to round up a staff of 'topnotchers' and decorated veterans from the little magazine wars.

In the late eighties and early nineties it was used for famous or successful people in any field of public interest, from business and politics to pop music and sport.

In the first two episodes, the mix also runs to Thatcherite glitterati (nesting in their Thameside lofts) and disco gays.

Listener 30 May 1985, p. 34

In a Lions tour of Australia that has been desperately short of glitterati England's blind-side flanker has emerged as a player of top quality.

Guardian 15 July 1989, p. 19

glitzy adjective (Lifestyle and Leisure)

In show-business slang (originally in the US): full of cheap glitter, extravagantly showy, ostentatious, flashy (often with the implication that there is little of substance under the glitter); tawdry or gaudy.

Etymology: Probably related to German glitzerig or glitzig 'glittering' and its Yiddish equivalents, but perhaps influenced by glitter and ritzy.

History and Usage: The word was first used in American show-business circles in the mid sixties, but it was in the late seventies and eighties that it suddenly became one of the most fashionable reviewers' buzzwords and started to reach a wider audience. This sudden vogue coincided with a particularly showy phase in television entertainment, with the conspicuous wealth and glamour of such upmarket soap operas as Dallas and Dynasty

professional because of their earning ability--often they're glitzy superficial rubbish produced to a formula.

Photopro Spring 1990, p. 4

See also tack

global adjective (Environment)

In environmental jargon: relating to or affecting the Earth as an ecological unit. Used especially in:

global consciousness, receptiveness to (and understanding of) cultures other than one's own, often as part of an appreciation of world socio-economic and ecological issues;

global warming, a long-term gradual increase in the average temperature in climate systems throughout the world as a result of the greenhouse effect.

Etymology: Both these phrases use global in its dominant modern sense of 'worldwide', and are influenced by Marshall McLuhan's famous concept of the global village (coined in Explorations in Communication, 1960), which recognized the way in which technology and communications allow everyone to experience world events simultaneously and so effectively 'shrink' world

societies to the level of a single village or tribe. Global consciousness also draws on the fashion for consciousness-raising in the sixties.

History and Usage: Global consciousness is originally a US term which arose during the seventies, but became commoner as a catch-phrase (expressing the basis of the 'we are the world' culture) once the green movement gained widespread popular support during the second half of the eighties. It was also

during the eighties that global warming entered popular usage, although scientists had begun to use the term in the late seventies, as research began to show that increased carbon dioxide emissions in industrialized countries burning large quantities of fossil fuels would almost certainly contribute to the greenhouse effect to such an extent as to affect worldwide climate. The repercussions of even a small increase in world

temperatures could be far-reaching, including a rise in sea

level and widespread flooding or permanent submersion of land; this is one reason why governments started to treat the problem as a serious one requiring prompt preventive action.

One of the least pleasant characteristics of our era must surely be its transformation of global consciousness into a sales item.

Nation 17 Apr. 1989, p. 529

After the Prime Minister's Downing Street seminar on global warming last year, 'government sources' were quoted as saying that nuclear power had a major part to play.

Which? Apr. 1990, p. 222

global double zero (Politics) see zero

glocal adjective (Business World)

In business jargon: simultaneously global and local; taking a global view of the market, but adjusted to local considerations. Also as a verb glocalize, to organize one's business on a global scale while taking account of local considerations and conditions; process noun glocalization.

Etymology: Formed by telescoping global and local to make a blend; the idea is modelled on Japanese dochakuka (derived from dochaku 'living on one's own land'), originally the agricultural principle of adapting one's farming techniques to local conditions, but also adopted in Japanese business for global localization, a global outlook adapted to local conditions.

History and Usage: The idea of going for the world market (global marketing) was a feature of business thinking in the early eighties. By the late eighties and early nineties Western companies had observed the success of Japanese firms in doing this while at the same time exploiting the local conditions as well; this came to be called global localization (or, at first, dochakuka), soon abbreviated to glocalization. It proved to be

one of the main marketing buzzwords of the beginning of the nineties.

'Glocalize,' as the Japanese call it.

Fortune 28 Aug. 1989, p. 76

We've witnessed what you might have heard called 'glocalization': making a global product fit the local market. To do that effectively, you've got to have individuals who understand what makes that particular market tick.

Advertising Age 8 Jan. 1990, p. 16

gloom and doom

noun phrase Also in the form doom and gloom (Business World) (Politics)

A feeling or expression of despondency about the future; a grim prospect, especially in political or financial affairs.

Etymology: A quotation from the musical Finian's Rainbow (1947, turned into a film in 1968), in which Og the pessimistic

leprechaun uses the rhyming phrase as a repeated exclamation:

Doom and gloom...D-o-o-m and gl-o-o-m...I told you that gold could only bring you doom and gloom, gloom and doom.

History and Usage: This allusive phrase was first picked up by US political commentators in the sixties (perhaps as a result of the popularity of Finian's Rainbow as a film) and was being used as an attributive phrase to describe any worrying or negative forecast by the seventies. In the early eighties it was perhaps particularly associated with economic forecasting and with the disarmament debate; the emphasis shifted in the second half of the eighties to the pessimistic forecasts of some environmentalists about the future of the planet. Both the nuclear and environmental uses influenced the formation of the

word doomwatch (originally the name of a BBC television series) for any systematic observation of the planet designed to help avert its destruction. A person who makes a forecast of gloom