The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

century: the former enables us to see particles and waves as different aspects of the same entity, while the latter paved the way for such concepts as black holes and the curvature of space-time. However, theoretical physicists found considerable difficulty in reconciling the two theories to produce a unified theory of quantum gravity (so called because the explanation of gravity is a central aspect of the theory). Most current models of the nature of the elementary particles which make up the universe supplement the familiar four dimensions of space and time with up to seven other (not directly observable) dimensions: one way of simplifying the resulting complexity is to view different particles as in some sense derived from the

same superparticle--a proposal known as supersymmetry. Some of the other inconsistencies of unified models can be eliminated by replacing points in space-time conceptually by 'loops' or short 'lengths' of 'string', likewise observable only in more than

four dimensions (some theories postulate as many as 26). In

1982 a way of combining these two approaches was developed which became known as superstring theory. Its acceptability as a

possible TOE ('theory of everything') remains debatable, but its possibilities in this direction have fascinated physicists for most of the past decade.

Superstrings are entities in ten dimensions (nine space-like, one time-like) which are expected to behave like ordinary particles when the ten dimensions are collapsed to four.

Nature 3 Jan. 1985, p. 9

Michael Green...won the honour for his work on superstring theory. He is one of those who believe that everything in the cosmos...is made of these incredibly tiny objects.

Daily Telegraph 20 Mar. 1989, p. 23

supersymmetry

(Science and Technology) see superstring

supertitle

(Lifestyle and Leisure) (Music) see surtitle

To ride on the roof or outside of a train, as a dare or for 'kicks'; to ride (a train) as though it were a surfboard.

Etymology: A figurative use of surf: the youngsters concerned use the trains for sport, to get excitement and thrills, just as richer youngsters in coastal areas use the waves.

History and Usage: The practice of surfing (sometimes known more fully as train surfing) seems to have begun among poor youngsters in Rio de Janeiro and by the late eighties had spread to some US cities as well. In the late eighties it also started

to become a problem in the UK, with a number of incidents in which young people were killed engaging in this extremely dangerous 'sport'.

What has become known as 'train surfing' is killing 150 teenagers a year in Rio, and injuring 400 more.

Chicago Tribune 5 May 1988, p. 28

A verdict of misadventure was recorded yesterday on an 18-year-old student who fell to his death while

'surfing' on a 70mph Tube train.

Daily Telegraph 1 Dec. 1988, p. 5

surrogacy noun (Health and Fitness) (People and Society)

The practice (also known as surrogate motherhood or surrogate mothering) in which a woman carries and bears a child for another, either from her own egg, fertilized outside the womb by the other woman's partner and then re-implanted, or from a fertilized egg from the other woman.

Etymology: A specialized use of surrogacy, which formerly meant 'the office of deputy' (a surrogate being a person who stands in

for another).

History and Usage: The practice of surrogacy, which first took place in the US in the late seventies, was the subject of heated moral and legal debate both in the US and in the UK during the

eighties. The central question concerned the ethics of an arrangement in which a woman agreed to carry and bear a child for others in return for a fee, on condition that she would hand over the baby to the couple 'employing' her after the birth. In

a famous case in the US (known as the case of Baby M), the surrogate mother was reluctant to relinquish the baby after bonding with her at birth, and a court battle for custody of the

child ensued. In the UK a committee chaired by Dame Mary Warnock considered the ethics of surrogacy and recommended in its report (published in July 1984) that it be made illegal. The continuing debate in the US has led to a distinction between host surrogacy

(in which the fertilized egg is the product of both the 'employing' parents, and the surrogate mother is providing no more than an incubator for the embryo during gestation) and surrogacy in which the surrogate mother is biologically involved by supplying the egg for fertilization.

Is surrogate mothering class exploitation? Even the gift of life can come wrapped in ethical quandaries.

Life Fall 1989, p. 104

A surrogate mother...can be impregnated with his sperm artificially and she can even be impregnated by the sperm and the ovum of the infertile couple (a process known as 'host' surrogacy). Providing the surrogate mother does not have intercourse with her partner before the embryo 'takes', the infertile couple will be

presented with a baby which is genetically all their own.

She Aug. 1990, p. 6

surtitle noun and verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (Music)

noun: A caption which is projected on to a screen above the stage during the performance of an opera, giving a translation of the libretto or some other explanation of the action.

transitive verb: To provide (a stage production) with surtitles.

Etymology: Formed by adding the prefix surin the sense 'above' to title; consciously altering subtitle (as used in

films etc.) to put across the idea that these captions appear above rather than below the action.

History and Usage: Opera surtitles were first so called by the Canadian Opera Company in 1983, when they were used to provide an English translation of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's German libretto to Richard Strauss's Elektra; the company went on to register the name Surtitles as a trade mark in Canada in July

1983. Within three years they had spread to opera productions all over the English-speaking world, although some producers chose to call them subtitles despite the fact that they appear above the stage. By the end of the eighties the term surtitle

had become established and had been applied to stage productions of foreign plays as well as opera. Among opera buffs the provision of these captions caused some controversy, both because some people found them intrusive and because it was claimed that the word was badly formed and should actually have been supertitle (the name in fact used by US opera companies). The verbal noun used to describe the practice is surtitling; the adjective to describe productions in which it is used is

surtitled.

The Australian Opera will use surtitles at all performances in languages other than English in 1985.

Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 Dec. 1984, p. 24

Glyndebourne...faced an angry response when it surtitled a touring production in 1984.

The Times 23 June 1986, p. 3

survivalism

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) (War and Weaponry)

The practising of outdoor survival skills as a sport or hobby.

Etymology: Formed by adding the suffix -ism to survival in the sense 'the ability to survive under harsh or war-like

conditions'.

History and Usage: Survivalism as a word for the pastime of perfecting survival techniques or survival skills dates only

to be maintained at a certain rate or level', itself a sense which only entered the language in the sixties.

History and Usage: The adjective sustainable has been used in relation to wildlife conservation since the seventies;

especially in the phrase sustainable development, it became one of the environmental buzzwords of the eighties as the green movement succeeded in focussing public attention on the long-term effects of energy use and industrial processes in Western societies. The corresponding adverb sustainably and the noun sustainability also became popular in environmental contexts: governments were urged to use energy sources sustainably and to consider the sustainability of processes, for example.

It was host...to an environmental meeting in Bergen at which ministers from ECE's member countries discussed practical steps to promote 'sustainable development'.

EuroBusiness June 1990, p. 64

The conference...was the first...ever to discuss the potential, as well as the problems, of conserving rainforests by sustainably exploiting non-timber resources.

Earth Matters Summer 1990, p. 3

Suzuki (Drugs) see basuco

19.17 sweep...

sweep noun (Lifestyle and Leisure)

In the US, a survey of the popularity of radio and television shows, especially for the Nielsen index of popularity ratings; often in the plural, as the sweeps: the designated times during the year when these surveys are carried out.

Etymology: A specialized use of sweep in its established figurative sense of 'a comprehensive search or pass over something'.

History and Usage: The Nielsen rating system for radio and television programmes in the US dates from the early fifties, but the practice of carrying out a sweep during particular weeks of the year (called a sweep week) does not seem to have started until the seventies. In the second half of the seventies and the eighties, there was considerable public interest in the sweeps, especially since certain channels appeared to be putting on the best and most popular shows at this time (a practice which is actually against the rules, but difficult to prove).

A computerized link between financial institutions and points of sale, enabling goods to be paid for by debit card using EFTPOS;

in the UK, a computerized EFTPOS system set up in 1988 and used by a number of banks.

Etymology: Switch in computing already meant 'a program instruction that selects one or other of a number of possible paths according to the way that it is set'; in the context of EFTPOS, the choice of the name switch was probably also influenced by packet-switching, a standard mode of data transmission in which a message is broken down into parts or packets.

History and Usage: The first point-of-sale computer systems to incorporate switches as the link between retail outlets and financial services was set up in the US in the second half of

the seventies, when the State of Iowa established a statewide switch network. The debit card system actually known as Switch

in the UK was launched by the Midland Bank, NatWest, and the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1988. Using this system, shoppers need only a plastic debit card (see card°) called a Switch card to

pay for goods; the switch ensures that the appropriate sums are transferred electronically from the purchaser's account to the retailer's. For this reason, the switch was thought of in the early eighties as the herald of a cashless society in which a

debit card would be all anyone would need to carry; although the switch systems are reasonably successful, in the early nineties this result still appears a long way off.

Though similar systems have been tried on a much smaller scale by Hy Vee and Dahl's, both in Iowa, Publix is the first supermarket company to own not only the in-store terminals but also the crucial switch that channels the messages from varied sites to the appropriate banks.

Supermarket News 2 July 1984, p. 1

Barclays and Lloyds are pushing their debit cards hard. So are National Westminster, Midland and Royal Bank of Scotland, which have jointly developed the Switch debit card system. Their standard cheque guarantee cards double as Switch cards; there are now 10 million Switch cards in circulation.

Independent 27 Jan. 1990, p. 8

20.0T

20.1tablet...

tablet noun (Science and Technology)

In computing, a flat rectangular plate or pad over which a stylus or mouse is moved to input graphics or alter the position of the cursor on a VDU screen.

Etymology: A specialized use of tablet in its original meaning of 'a small, flat, and comparatively thin piece of hard material

fashioned for a particular purpose'.

History and Usage: The tablet, which essentially digitizes information about the position of the stylus or mouse, was developed by the Rand corporation in the US in the mid sixties. At first it was used mainly for inputting graphic images, using

a stylus which could be moved around on the tablet like a pen on a pad of paper, the resulting 'lines' being instantly translated

into images on the VDU screen. With the boom in personal computing and the increasing popularity of WIMPS (see WIMPý) in the eighties, the tablet reached a wider market of users and

became a commonplace piece of computing equipment. The tablet is often known more fully as a data tablet, electronic tablet,

etc.; one designed for use with the fingers instead of a stylus or mouse is a touch-tablet (or touchpad).

A graphics tablet allowing sophisticated computer graphics facilities to be added at low cost to a wide variety of microcomputers has just been announced.

Computing Equipment Sept. 1985, p. 16

To get the most out of drawing options, I strongly recommend the use of a mouse, joystick or touch-tablet.

Personal Computer World Nov. 1986, p. 191

In slang: gaudy or shoddy material, rubbish, 'tat'; also, cheap-and-nastiness, kitsch.

Etymology: Formed by abbreviating the adjective tacky 'cheap and nasty, vulgar' (itself a piece of US slang which dates from the nineteenth century).

History and Usage: A media word of the second half of the eighties, especially beloved of arts critics, who also like to use the punning form hi(gh)-tack (see high-tech).

The king of cinematic trash and tack turns his attentions to the written word.

Arena Autumn/Winter 1988, p. 198

Clubbers would turn up wearing exceptionally 'high tack' smiley-faced T-shirts.

Q Oct. 1988, p. 66

There's no point in being snooty about hi-tack shows of this sort. We may as well admit that they have an elemental pull on our psyche and submit gracefully.

Time Out 4 Apr. 1990, p. 54

Leonard Cohen presents the tale of 'Elvis's Rolls Royce' in a lugubrious deadpan that effortlessly conveys all the sleaze, tack and warped majesty of the subject.

Independent 13 July 1990, p. 15

tactical adjective (Politics)

Of voting: involving a switch of electoral allegiance for strategic purposes (especially so as to prevent a particular party or candidate from succeeding). Also of a voter: operating on this principle.

Etymology: A specialized use of tactical; a person voting on this basis is using a tactic designed to ensure that the candidate he or she favours least is not elected.

History and Usage: Voting designed to keep one's least favoured candidate out was first described as tactical in the mid

seventies. The practice--and therefore also the name--became widespread in British general elections and (especially, perhaps) by-elections during the eighties. An elector living in a constituency where his or her favoured party has no hope of success is most likely to vote tactically, so as to confound the opposition.

There was glee in Government quarters at Labour's predicament. Mr Rifkind, Scottish Secretary, said Labour had lost one of its safest seats and said Tory tactical voting had contributed to the swing to the SNP.