The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

grown-up stuff.

Listener 26 Jan. 1984, p. 11

Kids Vid, as the trade calls it, has suddenly become Big Business.

The Times 27 Jan. 1986, p. 9

With the summer holidays in full swing there are plenty of 'kideo' videos available.

Daily Express 20 Aug. 1986, p. 21

Ever since the early days of movies, the burning question has always been 'Is there a life after "kidflicks"?'

Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 31 Jan. 1988, p. 24

The second Mom and Dad disappear, it's--click--on to the sugar-coated treats of commercial kidvid.

New Age Journal July-Aug. 1990, p. 12

11.5 krytron

krytron noun (Science and Technology) (War and Weaponry)

A kind of high-speed, solid-state switching device that is used in the detonation of nuclear weapons.

Etymology: The derivation of the word is uncertain: the -tron element is almost certainly taken from electronic; the kryo could be a partial respelling of cryo-, or part of the word krypton.

History and Usage: The krytron first appeared in technical literature in the early seventies and would no doubt have remained limited to technical use but for an incident in early 1990, when it appeared that American-made krytrons had been obtained by President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and a political

scandal ensued. For a short time the word was prominent in the media.

Some forms of krytron can be bought commercially...The order aroused CSI's suspicions because it required krytrons of a specification which could only have a military use.

The Times 30 Mar. 1990, p. 9

12.0L

12.1lab...

lager lout

noun (People and Society)

In the UK: a young (usually affluent) man who typically spends leisure time drinking large quantities of lager or other beer as one of a group in a pub, and takes part in rowdy, aggressive, or boorish group behaviour.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: a lager-drinking lout. This form takes advantage of the alliterative effect of two words beginning with l--a factor which gives it more popular appeal than the original coinage lager culture (see below).

History and Usage: The idea originated with a speech by John Patten MP, then Home Office Minister of State responsible for crime prevention, in September 1988. Lamenting the increase in violence, especially in country towns which had formerly been thought of as quiet and peaceful, Mr Patten put the blame on affluent young men who would normally act respectably but had nothing better to do with their leisure time than drink too much beer. He described this as a lager culture and asked responsible citizens to help the police stop what he called 'lager culture punch-ups'. The form lager lout started to crop up in the newspapers about a fortnight after Mr Patten's speech; Sun

journalist Simon Walters claims to have been the first to make the transformation, although lager lout itself is often attributed to Mr Patten. The form lager culture has since died

out, but lager lout continues to be used and has even been used figuratively and as the basis for an adjective, lager-loutish.

Lager louts...may be educated into drinking at a much earlier age than executives in the alcohol industry believe.

Independent 13 Dec. 1988, p. 17

I would ask you to dismiss the idea that this was lager-loutish behaviour.

The Times 27 June 1989, p. 3

Having produced so many phoney dummies, the editor of the new lager-lout among 'quality' newspapers has only himself to blame.

Private Eye 15 Sept. 1989, p. 6

lambada noun (Lifestyle and Leisure)

A fast and erotic dance of Brazilian origin, in which couples dance with their stomachs touching each other; also, the rhythmic music to which it is danced.

Etymology: A Brazilian Portuguese word which literally means 'a beating, a lashing'.

History and Usage: The lambada has been danced in Brazil for many years, but was suddenly taken up as a fashion in North and Central America in the late eighties, perhaps in response to the craze for 'dirty dancing' (after the film of the same title,

1987). Lambada became the focus of considerable media hype during 1989 and 1990, and was included in the title of a number of films and of a disc which reached the top of the charts. This media interest caused it to be popularized in the UK and Australia as well. A verb lambada also exists; so striking was the promotion and 'packaging' of the dance for the Western market that the whole process of taking world or ethnic culture

and marketing it in the West has been referred to as lambadazation.

We were dancing the lambada face to face and sort of going up and down against each other.

Sun 11 Apr. 1990, p. 3

First it was disco, then dirty, then lambada--whatever way you want to kick up your heels.

Delaware Today July 1990, p. 46

Short for local area network, a computer network (see networký) in which computers in close proximity to each other are enabled to communicate and share resources.

Etymology: The initial letters of Local Area Network.

History and Usage: The first local area networks were developed in the late seventies; by the early eighties, the acronym LAN

was being used as a pronounceable noun in its own right. The LAN is most useful for inter-communication within a single business

or department, giving a higher quality of service than the wider networks (see WAN) and at the same time enabling groups of computer users to share resources. LANs were therefore in extremely widespread use throughout the computerized world by the end of the eighties, sometimes linking electronic audio or visual equipment as well as text-handling computers.

We've installed and continue to support a number of varied network environments--from LANS to WANS.

New York Times 17 Oct. 1989, section C, p. 13

ETHERNET and Novell NetWare still dominate the local area network market. It seems IBM's Token Ring and Microsoft's OS/2-based LAN Manager have made little headway outside those bits of the corporate market with Big Blue-tinted glasses.

Guardian 28 June 1990, p. 29

Lance noun (War and Weaponry)

A short-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile system designed to be used mainly with nuclear warheads; also, a missile used by this system.

Etymology: A figurative application of a historic weapon-name.

History and Usage: The Lance missile system was developed in the US in the sixties, for use by the US army. What brought it into the news in the eighties was controversy over its replacement in NATO after the conclusion of the INF treaty of

1987, which removed intermediate-range nuclear weapons from the European NATO armoury. The programme to develop a successor was written about as the follow-on to Lance programme and the weapon itself as the Lance replacement or Son-of-Lance. The cause of

the controversy was the proposal to give this new weapon a longer range, bringing it near in range to the

intermediate-range Soviet weapons being destroyed as a result of the INF treaty. In May 1990 the US announced its decision not to modernize the NATO Lance, after coming under pressure from Germany (where many of the old Lance missiles are based) to cancel the development plans.

There is no intention of extending the range so as to run foul of the INF treaty. But the Soviet Defence Minister blurred this distinction by describing the Lance replacement as having a range of 'up to 500 kilometres', and being 'similar to the SS-23'. Should

the Soviet Union go on destroying its SS-23s when Lance was being modernised, he asked rhetorically.

Guardian 29 July 1989, p. 9

Better even than the B-2 as a symbol, the committee halted work on two mischievous missiles--the SRAM-T (air-to-surface) and the Son-of-Lance (surface-to-surface). Each of these was designed to fall barely beneath the distance ceilings of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Boston Globe 3 Aug. 1990, p. 11

landfill noun (Environment)

In full landfill site: a place where rubbish is disposed of by burying it under layers of earth.

Etymology: Formed by abbreviating landfill site; the term landfill had been in use since the forties in the US for this method of disposing of rubbish, and since the sixties for the rubbish buried in this way.

History and Usage: Landfill has been used as a method of waste disposal in developed countries for several decades; landfill

site was first abbreviated to landfill during the seventies. In the mid eighties, the subject of landfills came into the news in

connection with growing concern for the environment, especially when it was revealed that hazardous wastes had been buried in them, and that the land had in some cases been re-used for residential sites: see dumping.

Manila's huge landfill at Tondo receives garbage from nearly two million people every day.

adjective: Of a computer: small, light, and usually not dependent on a mains power supply, so that it can be used on a person's lap.

noun: A portable microcomputer designed to be used on a person's lap. (Short for laptop computer or laptop portable.)

Etymology: Formed by compounding, after the model of desk-top; normally one would not speak of the top of the lap. As ever-smaller computers were invented, the terminology was changed to keep up with them: successors to the laptop have included the lunchbox, the notebook, and even the palm-top.

History and Usage: The laptop micro was first marketed in the US in the early eighties, and by the middle of the decade accounted for a sizeable proportion of microcomputer sales

worldwide. Most models work on rechargeable batteries and are no larger than a small briefcase; one of their main advantages is

that they can be used anywhere, whether there is a mains power supply available or not. By the second half of the eighties it

was commonplace to see business people using them in a variety of public places, including trains, cars, and aircraft. Lap-portable is sometimes used as an alternative term for laptop.

The Z-181 and Convertible are aimed at the real lap-portable market of journalists, academics, travelling salespersons and suchlike.

Practical Computing Oct. 1986, p. 63

You don't have to be a genius to know that a laptop usually costs more than its equivalent desktop.

Intercity Apr. 1990, p. 4

See also luggable

laser angioplasty

(Health and Fitness) (Science and Technology) see angioplasty

laserdisc noun Also written laser disc, laser disk, or (as a trade mark) LaserDisc (Science and Technology)

A disc on which signals or data are recorded digitally as a series of pits and bumps under a protective coating, and which is 'read' optically by a laser beam reflected from the surface; also called an optical disc or CD. In the form LaserDisc: the trade mark of software developed for the Philips LaserVision system.

and a manual to help designers to transfer programmes from Laservision and computer format to CD-I, thus broadening the choice of courseware and helping to reduce its cost.

Guardian 20 July 1989, p. 29

When I saw my first LaserVision demo, it was, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, 'deja vu all over again'. The picture was sharp.

Stereo Review Dec. 1989, p. 94

LAV (Health and Fitness) see HIV

Lawsongate

(Politics) see -gate

12.2 LBO...

12.3 leaderene...

leaderene noun (Politics)

In the UK, a female leader.

Etymology: Formed by adding to leader the otherwise unknown suffix -ene, possibly under the influence of the French feminine suffix -ine as used in the very similar Franglais word

speakerine (for a female TV presenter), a word which caused heated discussion among French purists during the sixties and seventies. (Franglais also boasts le leader and le leadership among its political borrowings, but not leaderine.)

History and Usage: The word was coined by Norman St John Stevas, then MP for Chelmsford, as a humorous nickname for Margaret Thatcher when she was Leader of the Opposition in the late seventies. The nickname proved very successful and continued to be used of her, usually with a capital initial,

throughout her period as Prime Minister (1979-90); it was a particular favourite of the satirical paper Private Eye. The usage also spread beyond its original limited context, and by the mid eighties was often used as a humorous word for any female leader, especially if she shared some characteristic with Mrs Thatcher. It will be interesting to see whether this extended use survives the end of Mrs Thatcher's leadership career.

The British security services seem to be the out-and-out villains under their new leaderene, a Thatcher-like figure of absurd proportions.

Listener 26 Apr. 1984, p. 33

In Finchley Central, part of the glorious leaderene's own constituency, there is only one policeman on patrol during the wee small hours.

Private Eye 29 May 1987, p. 8

lead-free (Environment) see -free

leading edge

noun and adjective Usually written leading-edge when used as an adjective (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Science and Technology)

noun: The forefront of progress or development, especially in technology; the 'state of the art'.

adjective: Representing the most advanced technology; state-of-the-art.

Etymology: A figurative application of a term that originally belonged (as a noun) to aerodynamics and aeronautics, where it was used of the forward edge of a moving object such as an aircraft's wing; the imagery here is of technology as a body moving constantly forwards, but with some aspects and designs further advanced than others and acting as a vanguard for future developments.

History and Usage: The figurative use arose in the world of computer technology in the second half of the seventies, and