Industry Might Try Some New Words

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The media industry is more vibrant than ever. Networks are moving quickly to offer content for iPads and smartphones to be consumed simultaneously when watching TV. TV Everywhere is on the march and Big Brother-ish facial recognition might be used to determine ratings.

With all this advancement, maybe it’s also time for industry argot to look to the past. More refined language might be in store such as rebranding a negotiation as a colloquy.

Bringing an Oxbridge tenor to Madison Avenue may be laughable, but a group at Wayne State University -- not named after a MediaPost writer with the last name Friedman -- would be thrilled. The school has released its 2013 list of words “worthy of retrieval from the linguistic closet.” The Washington Post directed readers to the “eminently useful words that should be brought back to enrich our language.”

Here they are with some industry-oriented example sentences:

--Buncombe
Rubbish; nonsense; empty or misleading talk.        

The cost of a Super Bowl spot is flat-out buncombe.

--Cerulean
The blue of the sky.

Social media offers an opportunity to make a campaign as popular as a cerulean T-shirt in Chapel Hill.

--Chelonian
Like a turtle (and who doesn’t like turtles?).

The economy could have a massive impact on the upfront this spring, causing it to move at a chelonian pace.

--Dragoon
To compel by coercion; to force someone to do something they’d rather not.

Buyers were dragooned into taking banner ads on a low-trafficked site in order to get a prime-time TV spot.

--Fantods
Extreme anxiety, distress, nervousness or irritability.

The client just called with fantods wondering why spending is increasing so much and sales keep going down.

--Mawkish
Excessively sentimental; sappy; hopelessly trite.

Hopefully the current season of “Downton Abbey” won’t end with the type of mawkish scene the last one did.

--Natter
To talk aimlessly, often at great length; rarely, it means simply to converse.

Discussions on how to move ahead on a multi-platform partnership were interrupted by nattering about how great an Instagram-oriented sweepstakes would be.

--Persiflage
Banter; frivolous talk.

Ratings are declining and the persiflage continues about how DVRs are only a small factor.

--Troglodyte
Literally, a cave-dweller. More frequently a backward, mentally sluggish person.

The producers are a bunch of troglodytes, who say product placement interferes with the integrity of a show.

--Winkle
To pry out or extract something; from the process of removing the snail from an edible periwinkle.

The new product is coming out this week and all the top shows are sold out, how do we winkle out of this one?

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1 comment on "Industry Might Try Some New Words".

1. Don Seaman from TVB
   

   commented on: January 23, 2013 at 5:59 p.m.
   I've used the phrase "More of a cerulean than a vermillion." in the "About" section of my Facebook page for eons now. Does that make me ahead of the times, then? Or am I really behind? I suppose I can self-argue about this until I'm cerulean in the face. Sagacious piece, Dave. Love it.

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