The hits just keep on coming. We are truly living in a golden age of spiv-speak and shonky language. Here’s a few more entries to the Crikey Spiv-tionary, courtesy of our wonderful readers:
Sufficient substance: A malleable, gel-like state that can be molded to fit various situations. Example: the same relationship can in one telling be likely to lead to marriage and in another not have “sufficient substance to be made public”. Thanks for that one, Gladys Berejiklian.
Humbled, humbling, humble: As one of our readers puts it, “a performative public show of eating humble pie in an attempt to appear chastened after being caught committing dirty deeds. A self-interested display of bad faith, which the rich and powerful deploy in the hope that it will attract sympathy from the public and those calling them to account”. Example, Rupert Murdoch: “This is the most humble day of my life.”
A colourful racing identity: Not so much a phrase used by someone dodgy, our reader points out, but about someone dodgy. Example: “High-flying bookmaker George Freeman was the perfect embodiment of the moniker ‘colourful racing identity'”, “Colourful funeral for colourful racing identity Jack Sparrow“.
Thanks again to our readers — we’re receiving far more examples than we can fit in one volume, so please do be patient if we haven’t gotten to yours yet.
Please avoid the use of the American word “gotten”.
I admire your resilient rear guard stand but that ugly amerikanizm is now ubiquitous, especially on this site.
And not just with the young interns
It’s rather easily avoided in this article by saying ‘got around to’, but I had never know it to be an Americanism, Marguerite. As I’m a thousand years old, and it was in common use in my childhood in Australia, I’m wondering if indeed it is an Americanism, and perhaps how old you and Dounreay might be. Methusaleh might be in for a nudge.
I’ll see what I can find on the intertoobs.
My post war kindi taught a 5yr old that ‘got’ is a weak,ugly word which cannot even stand alone, needing another verb to provide support.
It is never not possible to avoid this abusement – a simple rearrangement of the words usually suffices.
Often the number of words can be reduced and import enhanced.
“Latchkey politician – using your issued key, and claiming ‘TA’ whilst staying in Sydney (away from your home electorate) at the premier’s home while parliament sat”?
I think the spiv-tionary needs a definition of the terms ‘close personal relationship’, ‘intimate relationship’ and ‘relationships where marriage is a envisaged but are not considered close personal or intimate relationship.
Also some clarification around the why the term ‘sexual relationship’ is no longer used when referring to close personal and/or intimate relationships would be most helpful.