Out with the old, in with the new

by Stratton Craig

image overlay

Let us start by wishing you all a very Happy New Year. We hope you enjoyed the Christmas break and have started 2011 feeling refreshed.

This year is sure to bring many new brands, advertising campaigns and social networking trends to the fore, which gives businesses all the more reason to ensure their messages are connecting effectively with their audience.

With every new year also comes new ways of expressing yourself and new words. So just which words made it into the OED in 2010?

‘Rhode Islanders’ will be pleased to see they are finally an OED-accepted species, and a smile will be brought to the face of any fans of the tasty ‘rocky road’ treat. Unbelievably, even ‘scissors paper stone’ has an official entry. Others include ‘staycation’, ‘vuvuzela’, ‘dictionary attack’ and ‘cheeseball’.

You can find plenty more new entries here. And for a more unofficial, yet fairly entertaining, list of 2010 buzzwords, see this article from The Guardian.

Interestingly, the phrase ‘Big Society’ was chosen as Oxford University’s Word of 2010. Would you agree? ‘Vuvuzela’ ‘Boris bike’ ‘Tweet’ ‘simples’ and ‘jegging’ were among others considered for the award, which recognises words surrounding political, economic and social issues that dominated the headlines throughout the year.

So what do you think the buzzwords of 2011 will be? We’ve no doubt they’ll surround social networking, tuition fees and the Royal wedding…

Get in touch. Let us know how we can help.