Nobody quite knows what has caused this development, as "mike" was a perfectly good abbreviation and did at least look like the way it was said, which "mic" doesn't. Kit and the Widow: Presumably, widow's weeds.Literature: This used to mean a whole collection of great novels, poems, plays, etc, but now it means a small pile of brochures, as in "Shall I send you some literature on that?"Mic: A new abbreviation for "microphone". 3) In the press, a very very very important person who does exactly what the proprietor wishes.Epic: An adjective meaning, filmed in several different countries at enormous expenseIcon: 1) A small drawing on a computer screen 2) Any person whose great days are over but who is still admired by any other person, as in "Shirley Bassey is a gay icon", "Vidal Sassoon is a hairdressing icon", "The Queen is a royal icon", etc.Iconic: Said of a comedy show which is slightly different from its predecessors.Irish: Name given to new pubs with shiny wooden facades in Rome, Tel Aviv, Beirut, Stockholm, etc.Islam: A kind of religion whose adherents believe that God listens to them five times a day.Kit: Trendy new term for clothes, as in "Get your kit off". 2) In radio, a very important person who controls The Archers. Docudrama: A kind of television programme about a famous person, of whom there is so little film footage available that an actor has to be hired to impersonate him. Editor: 1) In television and film, a very minor person whose job it is to make sure that all the pictures sort of fit together.
From time to time I like to bring you a round-up of new words or new usages in current English, a kind of part-work glossary, and I think it is time to offer a few more examples of the way in which English is changing as we move towards the millennium Absolutely: A mild form of "yes". These will never be enough to prevent a bloody-minded parent going to law None the less, they represent the way forward. The Government is making positive law in order to clarify right and wrong; it must also seek to alter the climate of opinion, to carry parents and teachers (and children) along with it. Nothing here is going to stop anyone seeking to apply the provisions of the Human Rights Bill - but they will affect the judicial and social climate within which they are actionable..
("Pupils" these days is a category including hulking great teenagers of both sexes, strong and often angry: pity their teachers.)Hence the new guidelines published yesterday. Britain does not have to go down the American road and see its social and political life corrupted by a plague of court cases Take schools, recently infested by lawyers. Having rid them of corporal punishment, parents and teachers were left confused over exactly when and how discipline demanded "force" to be used on recalcitrant pupils. During the Thatcher and Major eras, Labour spokespeople applauded this development, and the growth of judicial review that it encouraged. They implied that if and when they got to power, people would once again start trusting the political system and so the call on the courts to redress wrongs would be lessened. Will they? The answer lies in Labour's hands: the faster it gets on with the job of parliamentary reform and modernisation, the smaller the scope for the judges.Litigiousness is not some epidemic disease. It is no excuse that Mr Straw's boss, the Prime Minister, seems to have been nobbled by ecclesiastical interests who seem to think, in their divine wisdom, that bishops and ministers do not have nor should be troubled by human rights.
