Do you sometimes read the newspaper and scratch your head in bewilderment at some of the words there. Do you want some TV shows and wonder what they’re talking about?  Or when someone calls you a dweeb, alpha geek, sheeple, unibrow, kidult, or metrosexual, are you being insulted or praised?

                English as a language is constantly growing and changing. That’s how it is with all languages that aren’t dead but particularly with English, which is practically the language of the world.

                We provided list of words that have been coined or which have acquired new meanings in the last couple of decades, with their meanings explained in a reader-friendly way so you don’t need to go running to some metal-heavy books or eye-popping internet sites to figure out what THOSE are. Here are the words you’ve always meant to look up, but haven’t had the time to do so or didn’t know where to go to find out since not all of them are in your old friendly dictionary.

                So lean back, read up,and have a good time. Update your vocabulary painlessly and feel relaxed, confident and up to date.

 

alpha geek ( noun phrase)

• The most accomplished or skillful person in  a particular field
• A bore, a nerd
• extravagant and flashy in a rather showy manner
• now, as a result of the American media’s coverage of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2002, the phrase is associated with the site of that attack.
• Dating many different people over a short period of time
• a middle-aged person who continues to participate in and enjoy youth culture
  • a very sophisticated urban male with a highly developed fashion sense, who is in touch with his feminine side but is not a gay (straight man)
  • typically metrosexual is a young  man with money to spend living in within easy reach of a metropolis
• persons who are easily persuaded and tend to follow what others do
• now, to wander around the Worldwide Web
• eyebrow hair that also appears above the nose, giving the appearance of a single, continuous eyebrow

dweeb(noun)

glitzy(adj.)

ground zero  (noun phrase)

hyperdating(noun)

kidult(noun, adjective)

metrosexual(noun, adjective)

sheeple (noun)

surfing(verb)

unibrow(noun)

 

Please be guide that we do not claim to be a dictionary. It’s more of a guide to the vocabulary of the last few decades. And it’s far from comprehensive. New terms keep cropping up every day and new meanings for old terms. 

By: Christian A. Cruz | Teacher I | Lucanin Elementary School | Mariveles, Bataan