The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

the gap between the present fleet and the horizontally-launched National Aerospace Plane single stage to orbit (SSTO) vehicle planned for the next century.

Physics Bulletin Mar. 1987, p. 91

Mac...argued...against NASA's space monopoly and its 40 percent subsidy to users of the space shuttle.

Robert & Elizabeth Dole Unlimited Partners (1988),

p.261

19.7sick building...

sick building

noun (Health and Fitness)

A building in which the environment is a health risk to its occupants, especially because of inadequate ventilation or air conditioning; used especially in sick building syndrome, the set of adverse environmental conditions found in a sick building; also, the set of symptoms (such as headaches, dizziness, etc.) experienced by the people who live or work there.

Etymology: Formed by compounding. There is both a figurative and an elliptical quality to the use of sick here: architects

and designers try to treat the symptoms caused by poor design, although it is not the building that is sick, but the people who use it.

History and Usage: Architects first wrote about large, centrally ventilated buildings as sick buildings in the early eighties and the set of vague symptoms suffered by people who

used such buildings had become known as sick building syndrome (sometimes abbreviated to SBS) by the mid eighties. Commonly reported symptoms included headaches, dizziness, nausea, chest problems, and general fatigue; most could be attributed to poor air quality or actual air pollution within the building. New buildings in particular tend to make the most efficient use of energy, avoiding unnecessary intake of air from the outside

which might increase fuel costs; the result is a building which

is airtight to fresh air not forming part of the ventilation system, and in which the same dirty or contaminated air can be

circulated over and over again. Such a building is also known as a tight building, and an alternative name for sick building syndrome--especially when it is attributable entirely to such a limited air supply--is tight building syndrome (abbreviated to TBS).

For lack of documentation, employers considered that the collection of symptoms that now go under the label Tight Building Syndrome (TBS)--or Sick Building Syndrome--were psychosomatic. Not too surprising, since TBS's raspy

throats, persistent coughs, burning eyes, headaches, dizziness, nausea and midafternoon drowsiness tend to disappear a half-hour after sufferers leave work.

Canadian Business Apr. 1987, p. 58

This is a book that affects to loathe the modern world. Modern architecture is dismissed in three words ('sick building syndrome') and barely redeemed by another ('Baubiologie'--t he architectural sprig of west German green consumerism).

Green Magazine Dec. 1989, p. 18

Airtight and chemical-laden, office environments may cause 'sick building syndrome', a condition characterized by fatigue, nausea, and respiratory illness.

Garbage Nov. 1990, p. 43

signature (Lifestyle and Leisure) see designer

single market

noun (Business World)

A free trade association allowing for a common currency and largely unrestricted movement of goods, capital, personnel, etc. between countries; specifically, such a free market as the basis

for trade between member states of the EC (also known more fully as the single European market), planned for full implementation

by the end of 1992.

Etymology: Formed by compounding; a market in which, instead of trading co-operatively but individually, the member states would come together to form a single unit. The word single seems to

have been substituted consciously for the common of Common Market in the sixties, before an actual plan for nineteen ninety-two was put forward.

History and Usage: The removal of barriers to trade has been an important aim of the European Community since its creation, but it was not until the Milan summit of June 1985 that a definite target was set for the creation of a single market by 31

December 1992. From about 1989 onwards, there was a concerted government advertising compaign in the UK, urging companies to make themselves aware of the implications of the single market and to take advantage of the opportunities it offered for growth and enterprise.

French officials now see the pillars to France's European policy as being: the development of the single European market, with the further opening of frontiers providing an important spur to economic growth, [etc.].

Financial Times 24 Mar. 1987, section 1, p. 3

In favour of a total ban are the state monopoly producers--Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. It is in their interests to block tobacco imports and protect their national products, against the spirit of the Single Market.

Marketing 17 May 1990, p. 1

SITCOM (People and Society) see DINK

19.8 ska house...

ska house (Music) (Youth Culture) see house

skateboarding

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Youth Culture)

The use of a skateboard (a small board mounted on roller-skate wheels), for sport and recreation.

Etymology: Formed on the noun skateboard, which was formed by compounding after the example of surfboard: a board which relies on skates to provide mobility.

History and Usage: Skateboards first appeared in the early sixties in California, where they originally provided a substitute for surfing when the ocean conditions were unfavourable. In the mid seventies they enjoyed a short-lived

worldwide craze, during which numerous skateparks were built in which skateboarders could practise tricks and manoeuvres in safety. The pastime never completely died out, and by the second half of the eighties had become fashionable again, perhaps because of its appearance in such films as Back to the Future (1985). Some of the special language used by skateboarders (such as gleaming the cube for 'pushing oneself to the limits') also enjoyed wider popularity as a result of films about skateboarding.

Surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding looks have been so mass-marketed that the purists feel betrayed.

Los Angeles Times 12 Sept. 1990, section S, p. 4

19.9 ska house...

slasher noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society)

Used attributively (in slasher film, slasher movie, etc.) of horror films or videos which depict vicious or violent behaviour.

Etymology: So named because the attacker is shown slashing the victims with a knife or carrying out similarly violent attacks.

History and Usage: Slasher was first used as the name for a violent horror film in the mid seventies; however, the genre really became established in the mid eighties, with ever more gory horror films being released for rental through video clubs.

Slasher films came in for a good deal of criticism in the mid eighties, as people started to make a connection between the fashion for them and rising levels of violent crime.

Paramount's low-budget slasher film Friday the 13th Part 3 in 'super 3-D' was roundly thrashed by critics

('Trash', said Newsweek).

Forbes 27 Sept. 1982, p. 176

Instead of the breakdance and slasher movies aimed at the teen market, you have more thought-provoking films like Rain Man and Dangerous Liaisons.

Sunday Telegraph 19 Mar. 1989, p. 11

sleazebag noun (Youth Culture)

In young people's slang (originally in the US): a sordid or despicable person (especially someone considered morally reprehensible); a 'scuzzbag' (see scuzz).

Etymology: Formed by compounding, from sleaze 'squalor, sordidness' (in use since the late sixties) and -bag (as in windbag etc.).

History and Usage: Sleazebag was the first of a number of compounds based on sleaze to be coined in the US during the eighties, appearing at the beginning of the decade as a general term of abuse, but used especially in political contexts to

imply that a person had low standards of honesty. It was closely followed in the mid eighties by sleazeball (which essentially means the same as sleazebag) and sleaze factor, the sleazy or sordid aspect of a situation (applied especially, in US

politics, to scandals and alleged corruption involving officials of the Reagan administration). Sleaze factor was a term coined in 1983 by American journalist Laurence Barrett, as a chapter heading in his book Gambling with History; it remained current throughout the Reagan administration, pointing to scandals, resignations, and alleged malpractice which nevertheless largely failed to 'stick' to the President himself (see Teflon). After

the end of the Reagan administration, sleaze factor had become a sufficiently familiar expression to survive in other contexts,

and was even occasionally used in politics outside the US as well.

We are not giving away any principles, because we do have a few on this side of the House, unlike the sleazebags over there.

National Times (Australia) 22 Nov. 1985, p. 7

It was stated in court by X's sleaze-ball lawyer.

Richard Ford The Sportswriter (1986), p. 13

Among the people, places and things making indelible entrances [in the eighties]:...PCs. Rambo. Sleaze factor.

Life Fall 1989, p. 13

(More fully, Slim disease): the name used in Africa for Aids.

Etymology: So named because of the severe weight loss associated with the disease.

History and Usage: For history, see Aids. The disease probably originated in Africa and reached epidemic proportions in some African countries during the eighties, but the problems of these countries were less widely publicized in the West than the corresponding difficulties of the US and decommunized countries like Romania in dealing with Aids.

A new disease has recently been recognised in rural Uganda. Because the major symptoms are weight loss and diarrhoea, it is known locally as slim disease.

Lancet 19 Oct. 1985, p. 849

Because it is the skilled ‚lite...who have most money to spend on womanising, it is this group which is suffering the worst ravages of Slim.

Independent on Sunday 1 Apr. 1990, Sunday Review section, p. 10

Sloane Ranger

noun and adjective (People and Society)

noun: An upper-class and fashionable but conventional young person, especially one who lives in London. (Also abbreviated to Sloane or Sloanie.)

adjective: Characteristic of this class of person; adopting the style of dress, manner, or lifestyle of a Sloane.

Etymology: Formed by replacing the Lone of Lone Ranger (a well-known hero of western stories and films) with Sloane (part of the name of Sloane Square in London, in or near which many young people of this background live). The formation takes advantage of the shared sound to make a blend of the two names.

History and Usage: This allusive name for a social group was coined by Peter York in Harpers & Queen magazine in 1975:

The Sloane Rangers...are the nicest British Girl.

Although not exclusively limited to young women, the term Sloane Ranger was at first mostly associated with the stereotype of the upper-class young woman who had been to one of the best schools, shopped at the smartest shops, and socialized in the 'right'

circles (that is, with people whose wealth was inherited rather than earned). By 1982 the nickname had proved successful enough for an Official Sloane Ranger Handbook to be published (providing a British counterpart for the American Preppie Handbook), and the term started to be applied more widely to the whole class of people (including young men, otherwise known as Hooray Henries) who enjoyed the Sloane lifestyle. Sloane Ranger was abbreviated to Sloane in the original Peter York article; Sloanie followed in the early eighties. The quality of being

like a Sloane Ranger is Sloaneness. By the end of the eighties the idea of the Sloane Ranger already seemed a little dated; however, the type continued to exist, and the name had started a fashion for humorous terms for social types that lived on through the eighties and into the nineties, starting with yuppie and still generating new variations.