The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

Up to 150 staff will be 'outplaced', with the group administrative services unit and the professional services unit (lawyers) being hardest hit.

Financial Review (Sydney) 28 Aug. 1987, p. 18

15.9 ozone...

ozone noun (Environment)

A colourless unstable gas with a pungent smell and powerful oxidizing properties, which makes up the ozone layer, a layer of naturally occurring ozone in the earth's upper atmosphere that absorbs most of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation. Used especially in compounds to do with environmental concerns about the ozone layer:

ozone depletion, a reduction of ozone concentration in the ozone layer caused by atmospheric pollution and the build-up in the atmosphere of ozone-depleting chemicals such as CFCs;

ozone-friendly, of a product, material, etc.: not containing chemicals which harm the ozone layer (see also -friendly);

ozone hole, an area of the ozone layer in which serious ozone depletion has occurred; also used as a synonym for ozone depletion.

History and Usage: Concern about the damaging effects of modern industrial chemicals on the ozone layer was expressed by environmentalists as long ago as the seventies, but most of the other terms defined here came to public attention only in the

mid eighties, as environmental concerns were in general brought to prominence by the green movement. Public awareness of the potentially damaging effects of creating an ozone hole was possibly heightened by the results of research which linked overexposure to ultraviolet radiation with skin cancers, although the environmental effects of a large ozone hole would be so devastating to weather systems, agriculture, and animal life on the planet that some argued that the cancer risk was a minor concern. Other terms using ozone in this context include

ozone-benign, ozone destroyer (and ozone destruction), ozone safe, and ozone-unfriendly (see unfriendlyý).

Scientists expected from some mathematical models that the next very large ozone hole over Antarctica would occur in 1990.

New York Times 23 Sept. 1989, p. 2

Many ozone-friendly aerosols use hydrocarbons as the propellant; these have a higher risk of ignition or explosion if misused.

Which? Sept. 1989, p. 431

HCFC-123...has the potential to break down some ozone, although its ozone depletion potential (ODP) has been calculated at only 0.02.

New Scientist 15 Sept. 1990, p. 34

First of all, polystyrene loose fill is not made with ozone-depleting CFCs or HCFCs, but with hydrocarbons.

Garbage Nov.-Dec. 1990, p. 73

ozone-unfriendly

(Environment) see unfriendlyý

16.0P

16.1package...

package noun (Science and Technology)

In computing jargon, a closely related set of programs, usually all designed for the same purpose and sold or used as a unit.

Etymology: A specialized use of the figurative sense of package, 'any related group of objects that is viewed or

organized as a unit'.

History and Usage: The word package has been used in computing for at least two decades, but it was the appearance on the

market in the early eighties of large numbers of commercial software packages for home computers and PCs that brought the word into popular usage. To the lay user, the commercial software package can appear to be a single program, since it contains all the software required to carry out a single

function (such as word processing or statistical analysis) and there is usually a user interface which draws together the various programs into a single menu of functions.

The finished animation was then imported into Macromind Director, a 2D moving graphics package, where it was layered over a textured background.

Creative Review Mar. 1990, p. 52

It's the first UNIX spreadsheet package to take

advantage of windowing, mouse support, dialog boxes, and pulldown menus.

UnixWorld Apr. 1990, p. 145

Pac-Man° noun Also written PacMan or Pac-man (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Science and Technology)

The trade mark of an electronic computer game in which the player guides a voracious blob-shaped character through a maze, gobbling up lines of dots on the way and avoiding being eaten by opposing characters. Also, the name of the central character, represented on the screen as a yellow circle with a section missing for the mouth (similar to a pie-chart from which one 'slice' of the pie has been removed).

Etymology: Like most trade marks, this one is of uncertain origins; Pac is probably a respelling of pack, referring to the fact that the little creature's whole object in life is to pack away (eat) everything that gets in its way.

History and Usage: Pac-Man appeared on the market in October 1980, at the height of a boom in video games in the US, and

proved one of the most successful and popular of the games then available in video arcades. Surprisingly it was not registered

as a trade mark in the US until 1983, by which time it was widely available in other countries and the video arcade market was beginning to wane. The Pac-Man character had become a well-known symbol in its own right by the mid eighties--giving rise to the figurative sense in Pac-Maný--and even acquired a family (including Pac Baby and a cat) in versions for home video use. The idea of the game was copied in a computer virus in the late eighties (see the Network World quotation below).

Among the viruses now invading or about to invade systems are: The PacMan virus. This one shows up on Apple Computer, Inc. Macintosh systems. The user gets to watch as PacMan eats the file on the screen.

Network World 6 Feb. 1989, p. 85

1981: Joystickmania was led by Pac-Man, which gobbled up nearly $1 billion--25 cents at a time--in a nation

suddenly hip-deep in video arcades.

Life Fall 1989, p. 63

Pac-Maný noun (Business World)

Used attributively (in Pac-Man defence or Pac-Man strategy) of a company's response to a take-over bid: involving a counter-bid in which the company facing the take-over threatens to take over the 'predator' instead.

Etymology: A figurative use of Pac-Man°: the situation is likened to a game of Pac-Man, in which the central character can, in certain circumstances, gobble up the monsters that threaten to devour it.

History and Usage: The Pac-Man strategy was first so named in 1982--less than two years after the video game came on to the market--bearing witness to the way in which the little yellow gobbler had caught the imagination of the general public. The name was coined by New York investment bankers and first reported by Deborah A. De Mott in the Wall Street Journal in August 1982. By the end of 1982 it had been used in a number of

markets outside the US as well.

Martin Marietta's strong countermove is in line with a budding takeover defense plan that Wall Street arbitragers and investment bankers alike yesterday were calling 'the Pac-Man strategy'. 'That's where my client eats yours before yours eats mine,' a merger specialist at one major investment banking firm said.

Wall Street Journal 31 Aug. 1982, p. 3

The board saw the tactic as an ASCAP, an assured second-strike capability; someone else called it a Pac-Man defence, after the video gobblers.

Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 26 Dec. 1987, p. 16

paintball noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (War and Weaponry)

A type of war-game practised as a sport or hobby, in which teams of combatants in military clothing attempt to capture the opposing team's flag, eliminating members of the opposition by firing pellets of brightly coloured paint from a type of airgun; also, the pellet of paint used in this pastime.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: the bullet is replaced by a ball of paint, which bursts on impact to stain the clothing of

the opponent.

History and Usage: The sport of paintball began in the US in the early eighties, but paintball did not, it seems, become its established name until about the middle of the decade. In the second half of the eighties it became an increasingly popular leisure activity in the US and the UK, an international association was formed for the sport, and a number of magazines were published on this subject alone. The paintball itself,

which is fired from a gun using carbon dioxide as a propellant, is a thick-skinned gelatin capsule filled with paint, which may be of any colour; its purpose is to 'tag' a player as having

been hit, since it bursts on impact and leaves a bright-coloured stain on the opponent's clothing. Protective eyewear prevents any injury from the paintball if it hits the face. Some people saw the rapid growth of interest in paintball as a worrying sign

of an increasingly violent and militaristic ethos among the

young (see Rambo and survivalism), but its followers emphasized the fact that it was actually a very safe sport, teaching

teamwork and strategic thinking. The word paintball is often used attributively, in paintball combat, paintball (war)-game, and paintball team. A player of the sport is sometimes called a paintballer.

Tucker has found a way to shoot people by playing a war game, Paintball, in which he and squads of weekend guerillas stalk each other through the woods with air guns that fire blobs of paint instead of bullets.

Chicago Tribune 18 Dec. 1987, section 5, p. 3

Five years since their introduction into Britain, the industry of paintball wargames continues to expand, attracting grown men and women back to a more sophisticated version of the games they once played as children with toy guns in their gardens.

Guardian 3 July 1989, p. 20

Paintballers come from all walks of life and we share a love of excitement and the open air.

Paintball Games Oct. 1989, p. 5

palm-top (Science and Technology) see laptop

paper noun (Drugs)

In the slang of drug users, a packet containing a dose of a drug; in recent use, especially a packet of ice.

Etymology: A piece of paper folded up as a container or wrapper for something (such as a medicinal powder) has been called a paper for many centuries (the earliest examples in English go back to the sixteenth century); it is a logical step--admittedly after a long interval--to this more specialized use, even though

in practice the drugs may be in small bags rather than folded pieces of paper.

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure)

A variation on the sport of parachuting, in which participants are first towed by a motor vehicle or speedboat while wearing the open parachute, so as to gain sufficient height from which to descend.

Etymology: Formed by telescoping parachute and ascending to make a blend.

History and Usage: Parascending was an earlier innovation than parasailing, having developed in the sixties, at first as a safe variation on parachuting which dispensed with the complications of making a parachute jump. By the mid seventies it was becoming established as a sport in its own right, and during the eighties

was among the group of fast-growing action sports that managed to increase their popular appeal. The verb parascend was back-formed from parascending; a person who practises the sport is a parascender.

New amendments to the Air Navigation Order and the revision of CAP 403 'Code of Conduct for Air Displays' now encompass the modern features in aviation, such as microlights and parascending which were not previously mentioned.

Air Display Dec. 1988 -Feb. 1989, p. 3

Parentline

(People and Society) see -line

passive smoking

noun (Health and Fitness)

Involuntary inhalation of tobacco smoke from smokers in one's immediate vicinity or with whom one shares an environment.

Etymology: Formed by compounding: smoking which is passive rather than active. The English term may be modelled on the German compound word Passivrauchen.

History and Usage: Passive smoking was first recognized and named by medical researchers investigating the health hazards of

tobacco smoke in the early seventies. The health risks of smoking became clearer and its popularity waned during the seventies and eighties; at the same time the plight of the

passive smoker, living or working with a heavy smoker and forced to breathe smoke-filled air, gained ever greater popular

awareness and sympathy.

The passive smoker is exposed mainly to 'sidestream' smoke given off directly from a cigarette, pipe or cigar.

Scotsman 16 June 1986, p. 11

In recent years scientists have found that passive smoking is a significant hazard for healthy people too. In 1988 the Froggatt Report, the Fourth Report of the

Independent Scientific Committee on Smoking and Health, stated that exposure to tobacco smoke increased the risk

of lung cancer in non-smokers by up to 30 per cent and may account for several hundred deaths in Britain each year.

Independent on Sunday 29 July 1990, Sunday Review section, p. 51

Patriot noun (War and Weaponry)

The name (more fully Patriot missile system) of a computerized air-defence missile system developed in the US and designed for early detection and interception of incoming missiles or

aircraft; also, a missile deployed as part of this system (known more fully as a Patriot missile).

Etymology: A figurative use of patriot 'a person who is devoted to and ready to defend his or her country'; the Patriot missile

is ready to defend the home country from attack by airborne forces.

History and Usage: The Patriot system was developed by Raytheon in the US during the late seventies and early eighties; the

first Patriots were put into service by NATO in Germany in 1985, as a replacement for the Hawk and Hercules systems. The first Patriot ever to be fired operationally, however, was in the Gulf

War of 1991, when the system was deployed to great effect by allied forces against Iraqi Scud missiles. The computerized tracking system of the Patriot locates incoming missiles, works out their expected trajectory, and if necessary launches an intercepting Patriot missile, which 'locks on' to the incoming missile and destroys it in mid air. The name Patriot is sometimes used as a proper name, without a preceding article.

The antimissile era has dawned in thunder and flame as wave after wave of Patriots has knocked Iraqi Scuds out of the sky. But the Patriot is just the beginning.

New York Times 5 Feb. 1991, section C, p. 1

Iraq has fired 68 Scud missiles--35 at Israel, 33 at

Saudi Arabia. The allies have launched about 130

Patriots against them.

Independent on Sunday 17 Feb. 1991, p. 2

16.2 PC...

Short for personal computer, a microcomputer designed for personal office or home use by a single user at any given time; specifically, such a computer designed and marketed by International Business Machines Corporation and known as the IBM PC.

Etymology: The initial letters of Personal Computer.

History and Usage: From 1982 until it was replaced by the PS2 series at the end of the eighties, the IBM PC was the acknowledged standard among 16-bit microcomputers, with the result that the abbreviation was very often used to refer to

this particular model. Other computer manufacturers quickly set about copying the PC; such a model became known as a PC clone (sometimes simply a clone) or a PC-compatible (also used as an adjective). By the end of the decade, though, with IBM marketing the PS2, PC alone was regularly used again for any personal computer. A personal computer with a hard disc might be