The Oxford Dictionary of New Words
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Issues [of the magazine]...embodied even more the spirit |
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of naff than had earlier been the case. |
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Harpers & Queen Dec. 1989, p. 235 |
naffý |
intransitive verb (Youth Culture) |
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A slang word used euphemistically to avoid saying 'fuck'; |
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usually in the phrase naff off: go away, 'eff off'. Also as an |
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intensifier or empty filler, in the adjectival form naffing. |
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Etymology: The origin of this word is uncertain; it may be an |
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example of back-slang, reversing the sounds in fan (a |
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long-established shortened form of fanny). Alternatively it |
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could be connected in some way with the wartime NAAFI: Keith |
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Waterhouse, who was the first to use it in print (in Billy Liar, |
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1959), points out that naffing was a general-purpose expletive |
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in the RAF during the Second World War. |
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History and Usage: Although first used in 1959, naff really |
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became popularized by the BBC television series Porridge from |
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the mid seventies onwards. When, in 1982, Princess Anne told |
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persistent press photographers to 'naff off', it acquired an |
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unexpected respectability; this was reinforced by its |
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association in some people's minds with the (in fact unrelated) |
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adjective in the entry above. A new phrasal verb naff about (to |
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make a fool of oneself) arose from this confusion. |
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'It's all been arranged, it's all set up, right? So naff |
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off', I said. |
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Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais Porridge (1975), p. 63 |
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Stealing your tin of naffing pineapple chunks? Not even |
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my favourite fruit. |
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Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais Another Stretch of |
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Porridge (1976), p. 16 |
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'Salute'...does not mean naffing about in a tutu. |
Suzanne Lowry Young Fogey Handbook (1985), p. 30
naked adjective (Business World)
In financial jargon, of an option, position, etc.: unhedged, not secured or backed by the underlying stock, and therefore high-risk.
Etymology: A figurative use of naked in the sense 'not covered'; the writer of a naked option does not actually own the stock concerned, so in this sense it is 'not covered'.
History and Usage: The practice of writing unhedged or naked options was first reported in the US in the early seventies; in the middle of the decade it was the subject of a number of prosecutions for fraud. As high-risk financial deals involving junk bonds and mezzanine finance became more common in the eighties, naked writing spread to other financial markets and the naked writer became a recognized (although still slightly suspect) figure in stock dealing.
Some traders were using more risky index-trading strategies, sources said. One involves writing naked puts--selling someone the right to force you to buy a stock index at a set price in the future.
Newsday 26 Oct. 1989, p. 58
NAM |
(Health and Fitness) (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Music) see New |
Age
nanny state
noun (Politics) (People and Society)
A derogatory nickname for the Welfare State, according to which government institutions are seen as authoritarian and paternalistic, interfering in and controlling people's lives in
the same way as a nanny might try to control those of her charges.
Etymology: Formed by compounding: the state perceived as playing the role of nanny.
History and Usage: The coinage of the nickname nanny state has
been attributed to both Bernard Levin and Ian Macleod; certainly it was first applied to the paternalistic British Welfare State, with its insistence on limiting individual's freedoms if this
could be argued to be for the individual's own good. Under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in the eighties the term acquired a new emphasis as the ethos of individualism and enterprise was presented as a better alternative to
spoon-feeding from the nanny state; the government's programme of privatization was one way in which individuals were to be weaned from reliance on such spoon-feeding. However, opponents of the government argued that authoritarianism and paternalism were stronger than ever in other areas, leaving the nanny state intact in so far as it affected individual rights and freedoms.
From the mid eighties the term was used in Australian politics as well.
The British, we are incessantly told, have now rejected the 'nanny state' and regard the social worker as a boring pest.
Washington Post 14 Aug. 1983, p. 5
The Nanny State is alive and well Down Under. The immediate target is the cigarette industry and individual smokers, but the drive to purify our lives will not end there.
Weekend Australian (Brisbane) 9-10 Apr. 1988, p. 20
A measure of privatisation of adoption is called for, with a diminution in the powers of...ideological apartheiders of the nanny State.
The Times 28 Sept. 1989, p. 17
narcoterrorism
noun Also written narco-terrorism (Drugs) (People and Society)
Violent crime and acts of terrorism carried out as a by-product of the illicit manufacture, trafficking, or sale of drugs, especially against any individual or institution attempting to enforce anti-drugs laws.
Etymology: Formed by adding narco- (the combining form of narcotic) to terrorism.
History and Usage: Narcoterrorism came into the news in the mid eighties, when it became clear that, in a number of countries where dangerous but highly profitable drugs such as cocaine are produced, the influential producers or 'drug barons' were in alliance with guerrilla and terrorist organizations to defeat any attempts to enforce anti-drugs laws. Alleging
government collusion with narcoterrorism in a number of Central and South American countries, some US authorities favoured intervention in the affairs of foreign countries to stop the
flow of drugs into their own country; in view of the serious and rapidly growing problems of drug abuse and drug-related crime within the US in the second half of the eighties, some argued that to manufacture drugs at all was itself a narcoterrorist
act. In the late eighties reports of the activities of the narcoterrorists centred on the plight of Colombia, where a government determined to stop the drug traffic was the target of repeated attacks in 1989-90.
Mr. Belaunde Terry said the victims [of a raid on an anti-drug team in Peru] were 'heroes' and the killers were 'narco-terrorists'.
New York Times 19 Nov. 1984, section A, p. 14
Calling cocaine manufacture 'narco-terrorism', as White House spokesman Edward Djerejian did in defense of the raid, the State Department merges its all purpose justification for intervention with the politics of drug warfare.
Nation 2 Aug. 1986, p. 68
It is the consensus among anti-drug officials here [in Colombia] that those two men are the masterminds of a 'narcoterrorist' campaign that has driven this nation of 32 million people into a state of widespread anguish and fear.
Los Angeles Times 13 Dec. 1989, section A, p. 6
nasty noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society)
Colloquially, a horror film, especially one on video; a video film depicting scenes of violence, cruelty, or killing (known more fully as a video nasty).
Etymology: A specialized use of nasty, which had existed as a noun meaning 'a nasty person or thing' since the thirties.
History and Usage: The problem of nasties (the word is often used in the plural to describe the genre as a whole) was discussed a good deal in the newspapers in the early and mid eighties--at the beginning of the video rental boom in the UK--when large numbers of these films first became widely available and proved worryingly popular. In particular, there was public concern over the potential influence of the more violent nasties on the behaviour of those who watched them.
Three videos, part of the current crop of 'nasties' available in thousands of High Street rental shops, have been sent to the DPP.
Sunday Times 6 June 1982, p. 3
With its tougher law on videocassettes, West Germany hopes to keep its youth away from the nasties.
Christian Science Monitor 3 May 1985, p. 30
See also slasher and snuff
national curriculum
Frequently written National Curriculum (People and Society)
In the UK, a programme of study provided for in the Education Reform Act of 1988, to be followed by all pupils in the
maintained schools of England and Wales, and comprising core and foundation subjects to which appropriate attainment targets and assessment arrangements are to be applied at specified ages.
Etymology: Self-explanatory: a curriculum to be followed on a national basis (though in fact the schools of Scotland are not statutorily included, since education is separately administered
there).
History and Usage: As originally proposed, the national curriculum was intended to provide higher and more uniform standards of education across the various schools and parts of the country at a time when there was serious public concern over the content and standards of British education. National Curriculum Councils were set up for England and Wales to co-ordinate proposals for the content of the curriculum, standards, etc., but the Act gave final responsibility for specifying the attainment targets and programmes of study to the Secretary of State for Education and Science. The early proposals were quite ambitious in their scope and were based on the premise that all pupils should study certain subjects (the 'core' subjects) up to a certain age, their level of attainment
in those subjects being assessed by organized testing at the 'key stages' of ages 7, 11, 14, and 16--the testing was to be
based on standard assessment tasks, or SATs. As these proposals were implemented from 1990 onwards, it became clear that the original scope had been over-ambitious, and the number of subjects in which testing was to take place was reduced accordingly.
This autumn, 25 Hampshire schools and colleges will be taking part in trials using CA material for teaching of maths and science under the new National Curriculum.
Which? Sept. 1989, p. 413
The Department of Education and Science said: 'An increased workload in the short term will bring long-term benefits for teachers and pupils as the national curriculum brings a clearer framework for teaching. The Government is pacing its vital reforms and deferring appraisal to meet concerns about teachers' workload.'
Financial Times 3 Apr. 1990, p. 12
national heritage
(Environment) see heritage
14.2 neato...
neato adjective (Youth Culture)
In young people's slang, especially in the US: really good, desirable, or successful; extremely 'neat'.
Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -o (here intensifying the force of the adjective) to neat in its colloquial sense 'excellent, desirable'.
History and Usage: Neato was in spoken use in the late sixties, but became a particularly fashionable term of approval among young people in the late seventies and early eighties. It was at this time that it also spread outside the US to other English-speaking countries.
We would probably never have heard of Peter Wagschal, or of his neato Ouija Board Studies Program, if it hadn't
been for one Larry Zenke, a pretty neato guy himself.
Underground Grammarian Jan. 1982, p. 1
Those were the days when Beaver used to...have what she calls 'a neato free time'.
More (New Zealand) Feb. 1986, p. 49
necklace noun and verb (Politics)
In South Africa,
noun: A tyre soaked or filled with petrol, placed round the neck and shoulders of a victim, and set alight, used as a form of unofficial execution. Often attributive, in necklace killing, necklace murder, etc.
transitive verb: To kill (a person assumed to be a police informer or collaborator) using this method. Also as an action noun necklacing.
Etymology: A figurative use of necklace, based on the fact that the tyre is placed round the neck. In the days of hanging, a
noose was also sometimes referred to metaphorically as a necklace.
History and Usage: It was in the mid eighties that Western newspapers began reporting the use of the necklace by South African Black activists on fellow Blacks who were suspected of betraying the Black rights movement. Such reports continued into the early nineties, even after the unbanning of the African National Congress and the move towards greater recognition of Black rights which followed.
Four more blacks...have been killed in 'necklace' murders...in South African townships.
The Times 22 Apr. 1986, p. 7
We heard that two nine year olds in that area had been 'necklaced', having rubber tyres filled with petrol put round their necks and set alight.
Tear Times Summer 1990, p. 6
need not to know
(Politics) see deniability
neighbourhood watch
noun Written neighborhood watch in the US (People and Society)
An organized programme of vigilance by ordinary citizens in order to help the police combat crime in their neighbourhood; crime prevention achieved by this method.
Etymology: Formed by compounding: the idea is for ordinary citizens to keep a watch on their neighbourhood.
History and Usage: The idea of neighbourhood watch came from the US, where the first scheme was set up in the early
seventies. By the mid eighties it was also catching on in the UK as a popular response to the rising number of burglaries and thefts. The underlying principle is local co-operation: that neighbours should be prepared to watch out for each other's property and welfare and co-operate with the police in ensuring that anything suspicious is reported and investigated.
Neighbourhood watch schemes are catching on fast. In Ja nuary a Home Office minister said 8,000 schemes were in operation.
New Socialist Sept. 1986, p. 5
The words 'neighborhood watch' mean more than just keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. Here...some 35 area block clubs' representatives meet regularly to figure out how to make their streets safer and cleaner.
Modern Maturity Aug.-Sept. 1989, p. 18
neo-con noun and adjective Also written neocon (Politics)
In North American politics (especially in the US),
noun: A neo-conservative; a member of a political movement known as neo-conservatism, which rejects the allegedly utopian values
of liberalism but supports democratic capitalism in which there is a measure of social conscience.
adjective: Of or belonging to the neo-conservative movement.
Etymology: Formed by abbreviating neo-conservative.
History and Usage: The neo-conservative movement in the US arose in the seventies under the influence of a group of contributors to the journal The Public Interest, and by the end of the decade had crystallized its ideas (for example on the place of a welfare state within a conservative society and the need for practical realities rather than utopian dreams) to become the focus of the 'soft' right in US politics. By the end of the seventies neo-conservative was being abbreviated to neo-con; in the course of the eighties this became a standard way of referring to conservatives of this complexion.
The neo-con intellectuals are privately dismayed at the choice of 'a Kemp without Kemp's baggage'.
New York Times 18 Aug. 1988, section A, p. 27
On the right, the hard-core conservatives and the neocons are left lamenting what they perceive as Reagan's unfortunate drift to d‚tente.
Washington Post 2 Dec. 1988, p. 27
Neo-Geo noun and adjective Also written Neo Geo or neo-geo (Lifestyle and Leisure)
noun: An artistic movement characterized by a high degree of geometric abstraction and often by the inclusion of consumer products such as manufactured goods. Also, an artist belonging to this movement.
adjective: Of or belonging to this movement.
Etymology: Formed by adding the prefix neo- 'new' to the abbreviation geo (for geometric).
History and Usage: Throughout the twentieth century abstract artists have often shown an interest in 'geometric' figures, producing precisely drawn pictures of straight lines and simple shapes: a particularly extreme form of this was the Neo-Plasticism of Piet Mondrian and his followers. Consequently, when in the mid eighties a small group of artists in New York's East Village began to exhibit works which showed a similar approach, the supposed 'school' that this represented became known as Neo-Geo. The hallmarks of the work of these artists were their interest in mass-production and the idea of creating something which has a suggestion of having been manufactured, interpreted by some as an ironic comment on the technological society. Other proposed labels for the genre include Neo-Conceptualism, Neo-Pop, and Smart Art.
The question of what to call the new thing has not been settled. 'Neo-geo', the catchiest title, may not stick, because it refers only to one ingredient of the package--the geometric abstract painting that mimics and comments on earlier geometric abstract painting.
New Yorker 24 Nov. 1986, p. 104
Worst of all are the Neo-Geos, who are like children