The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

The Sacks/Williams of the film is what Pauline Kael of the New Yorker, in one of her critical Scud missile moods, describes as 'another Robin Williams benevolent eunuch role'.

Independent on Sunday 17 Feb. 1991, p. 21

scuzz noun Also written scuz (Youth Culture)

In young people's slang (originally in the US): a disgusting person or thing; something or someone considered scuzzy.

Etymology: Probably an abbreviated form of disgusting (representing the actual sounds pronounced in the second syllable when the word is drawn out to emphasize the speaker's revulsion); it has been suggested that it might however be a blend of scum and fuzz.

History and Usage: Scuzz has been in spoken use among US teenagers since the sixties; it seems it first appeared in print

in 1968, while the corresponding adjective scuzzy was recorded a year later. During the eighties scuzz became the basis for a number of compounds, proving that it had become established in the language: the most important of these were scuzzbag, scuzzball, and scuzzbucket, all nouns meaning 'a contemptible or despicable person' and also used as general terms of abuse. All of these variations on the same theme appeared during the mid eighties and started to become known outside the US in the late eighties. The quality of being scuzzy is scuzziness.

He calls a minister a 'scuzzbag'.

Time 11 July 1983, p. 72

In the larger picture, we're just a little green scuzz on the surface.

Margaret Atwood Cat's Eye (1988; 1989 ed.), p. 230

Her cheating husband, Ernie, a crotch-grabber who brings new meaning to the word 'scuzzbucket'.

Newsday 17 Sept. 1989, TV Plus section, p. 85

scuzzy (Youth Culture) see scuzz and grody

19.4 SDI

19.5 SEAQ...

SEAQ (Business World) see big bang

Securitate

noun (Politics)

The internal security force (until December 1989) of the

Socialist Republic of Romania.

Etymology: A direct borrowing from Romanian securitate 'security'; this in turn is a colloquial abbreviation in

Romanian of the official name, Departamentul pentru Securitatea Statului 'Department for State Security' (the Securitate was a Department of the Ministry of the Interior).

History and Usage: Securitate was the colloquial name in Romanian of the feared Communist secret police under the Ceausescu regime (and before--the Departamentul pentru Securitatea Statului was set up in 1948). The word was only rarely used in English during the sixties and seventies; what really brought it into the news and gave it some currency in

English was the overthrow of that regime in December 1989. News reports from Romania in late 1989 covered popular demonstrations against the Securitate and attempts to ransack its offices and destroy its files. The Securitate was officially disbanded in December 1989 and a National Salvation Front decree ratified

this on 1 January 1990; in March 1990 a new security service was set up under the direct control of the President, and this was named Serviciul Romƒn de Informatii 'Romanian Information Service'. This organization took over the duties of the Intelligence section of the old Securitate, but subject to

formal guarantees that there would be no abuses of power such as

those seen under the Securitate itself.

The beliefs that they are constantly watched by the regime's political police, the Securitate, more than suffices to convince Rumanians to keep their thoughts to themselves.

New York Times 24 Nov. 1989, section A, p. 17

The Ceausescus' execution weakened the resistance of the hated secret police, the Securitate, who had been mounting indiscriminate attacks on army units and civilians in an unsuccessful attempt to crush the revolution.

The Annual Register 1989 (1990), p. 127

sellathon noun Also written sell-a-thon (Business World)

In marketing jargon (especially in the US): a concentrated attempt to sell, as in an extended cut-price sale, a television programme entirely devoted to the advertisement of a sponsor's products, or a marketing convention.

Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -athon (as in marathon) to the verb sell.

History and Usage: This is an American coinage of the second half of the seventies which has been applied in a wide variety of contexts, although almost exclusively within the US. Essentially, it seems, any marketing 'marathon' can be a sellathon.

Anyone else embarking on such a sellathon, should run a few VTR screen tests before making their final choice of presenter.

Broadcast 29 May 1978, p. 20

[The] marketing program for 1989 was outlined to Nugget Distributors members at the group's January Sellathon in Honolulu.

military invention and was probably first made during the seventies, although not under this name. Its manufacture was taken over by the East Bohemia Chemical Works in Pardubice-Semt¡n; it has been known as Semtex to intelligence sources outside Czechoslovakia since about 1982. Semtex had a number of non-aggressive uses, for example in the construction industry; however, its lack of odour and its malleability made

it a favoured explosive for terrorist bombs as well, since it could be concealed easily and was difficult for sniffer dogs to detect. It was this use by terrorists which brought the word Semtex into the news in English-speaking countries from about the middle of the eighties.

Police officials told Agence France-Presse that the explosive might have been Semtex, which they called the 'signature' explosive of Middle Eastern terrorist

groups.

New York Times 9 Dec. 1985, section A, p. 7

The Czechs were replying to a Foreign Office request for help in fighting terrorism and in tracing the growing consignments of Semtex reaching the IRA from Col Gaddafi of Libya.

Daily Telegraph 27 Aug. 1988, p. 1

Senderista

noun and adjective (Politics)

noun: A member of the revolutionary Peruvian guerrilla organization Sendero Luminoso (sometimes abbreviated to Sendero or translated Shining Path).

adjective: Of or belonging to Sendero Luminoso or its members.

Etymology: A borrowing from Spanish Senderista. The Spanish name is formed by adding the suffix -ista (equivalent to English -ist) to the stem of Sendero 'path'; Sendero Luminoso, which literally means 'shining path', is taken from the writings of an earlier Peruvian ideologist, Jos‚ Carlos Mari tegui: 'Marxism-Leninism will open the shining path to revolution.'

History and Usage: Sendero Luminoso, a neo-Marxist Peruvian revolutionary movement, was founded in 1970 as the Communist Party of Peru, but subsequently became a clandestine guerrilla organization which was active throughout the eighties. The activities of the Senderistas were reported in the newspapers, especially in the US, from about 1982 onwards.

Shouting Senderista slogans and songs, the peasants escorted the group to the community meeting hall.

New York Times Magazine 31 July 1983, p. 20

Deriving their communist ideology from the teaching of Mao Tse-tung, the Senderistas are led by Abimael Guzman (nom de guerre, Col. Gonzalo), a hermit-like former professor of philosophy at the University of Ayacucho.

Maclean's 25 Feb. 1985, p. 44

Unlike other revolutionary movements...Sendero hasn't opened itself to journalists: there have been no clandestine interviews with leaders, no conducted tours of areas under Sendero control.

New Yorker 4 Jan 1988, p. 35

The treasury is so empty that the government...certainly cannot pay all the soldiers needed to protect candidates around the country from the fanatical Sendero Luminoso guerillas.

Observer 1 Apr. 1990, p. 17

sensitive (Environment) see environmentally

sequencer noun (Music) (Science and Technology)

A programmable electronic instrument which can store sequences of musical notes, chords, or other signals and reproduce them when required, usually as part of a musical composition.

Etymology: A specialized sense of sequencer, which had been used since the fifties for a number of electronic devices that

put information in sequence.

History and Usage: Sequencers first became available in the mid seventies, but it was not until the early eighties and the development of MIDI that they started to be widely used. The sequencer proved an essential piece of equipment, both as an element of electronic instruments such as the keyboard and for the electronic music styles of the eighties, with their patchwork or collage-like quality; house music, in particular, relied heavily on this technology.

The Synclavier also has a 'sequencer', which is like a word processor for music: you can use it to program the machine to play 'Chopsticks' for you.

Listener 24 Oct. 1985, p. 43

Musicians create their rhythm patterns in the sequencer rather than on the drum machine.

Rhythm Mar. 1989, p. 30

serious° adjective (Business World)

In business jargon: considerable, worth taking seriously. Used especially in serious money, a large sum of money.

Etymology: A development of sense which relies on a kind of shorthand: it is not the money, the commodity, etc. that is serious, but the intention of the person offering it. Thus a serious offer of money, for example, became serious money.

History and Usage: This is a well-established US business usage (it has been in colloquial use for several decades). It became current in other English-speaking countries in the second half

of the eighties and increasingly found its way into print. According to some business executives, the fixed phrase serious money can be tied down to a figure containing a specified number of noughts; whether or not in this phrase, serious tends to be preceded by the verb talk, used transitively.

Bankability: Serious money. Recent two-book deal with Viking earned him more than œ150,000.