• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Plain Text

Copywriting that means business

  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Contact

D – DEVELOPING SLANG

30th November 2009 by Paul Waddington

(Words being considered for the Oxford English Dictionary)

According to George W. Bush, “Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement he has made. He’s stiffing the world.”

One might not know precisely what the President has in mind when he speaks of crawfishing and stiffing, but most of us could hazard a pretty decent guess from his colourful language. At times, he’s almost a poet!

Language develops because we create new words, adapt old ones, or introduce fresh meanings for existing vocabulary. Developing slang, used sparingly, is an acceptable use of language.

Others may disagree. Older pedants may take issue with using “kid” to refer to children, for example. Kids are young goats, they say, predictably — often in the letters columns of upstanding newspapers or on phone-ins on daytime television.

If the majority of people understand the word in the context in which it is used, it has developed sufficiently for general use.

President Bush is actually on firm ground. The verb ‘to crawfish’ has been in the Oxford English Dictionary for more than 100 years. It’s an 1840s political term meaning ‘to back out’. Until this presidential pronouncement, the verb has been little used. And if it catches on, there may be transatlantic differences, not least in pronunciation — we say crayfish, he says crawfish, just as they say tomayto and we say tomato. However, if we’re wrong here, we may crawfish from this prediction.

To ‘stiff’ is more modern. Although the OED has been monitoring it for 15 years, President Bush may have hastened its passage to the dictionary.

In such ways does language develop.

As Samuel Johnson wrote in The Dictionary of English in 1755:

“…no dictionary of the living tongue can ever be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away.”

Filed Under: A to Z of Plain Text

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Top posts through the years 31st October 2022
  • Copywriting across the spectrum: TOV and why it matters 11th March 2019
  • Another book on “business bullshit”? I call bullshit 26th November 2018
  • Our acclaimed copywriting workshop is back! 19th May 2017
  • Why copywriting is a craft, not an art 15th March 2017

Categories

Tags

Briefing copywriters Brochure writing Business jargon Capitalisation Case study writing Email copywriting Language development Language miscellany Nouns as verbs Powerful copywriting Powerpoint presentations Public sector copywriting Snappy copy Social networking Structuring copy Web copy Writing concise copy Writing straplines Writing white papers

Footer

Latest From Our Blog

  • Top posts through the years 31st October 2022
  • Copywriting across the spectrum: TOV and why it matters 11th March 2019
  • Another book on “business bullshit”? I call bullshit 26th November 2018

Menu

  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • About Plain Text
  • Privacy Policy

Search Plain Text

  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • About Plain Text
  • Privacy Policy

© 2025 · Plain Text Limited · Website by Dewar Green · Photography by IDB Creative