Improve your vocabulary

Well mine needs improving anyway.

Rapprochement Heard this one used a few times on Radio4 recently.
-noun
A resumption of friendly relations, esp between two countries.
[literally: bringing closer]

Schadenfreude I imagine most people already know this one.
-noun
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.
[ Schaden harm + Freude joy]

Freizeitstress Don't think this one is in the dictionary yet
-noun
Free time stress, as in someone who can't leave his/her work at the office.

Usufruct - A legal term describing a situation wherein a person or company has a temporary right to use and derive income from someone else's property (provided that it isn't damaged).

Déformation professionnelle
Phrase
French phrase, meaning a tendency to look at things from the point of view of one's own profession and forget a broader perspective

The first time I came accross an example of 'newspeak' was about twenty years ago on what proved to be my last business trip to New York. We were stuck on the runway at JFK for about fifteen minutes because of a backlog at imigration. When we were finally given permission to taxi to the terminal the stewardess informed us that we would be shortly 'deplaning.'
I'd never heard that one before.

I have heard deplane and deplaning frequently on US carriers, but the one that makes me smile is beverage.
It doesn't matter what you want on a US plane, vodka, beer, whisky, bourbon, tea, or coffee, they are not drinks, they are beverages.
Also pepsi, coke, Dr. Pepper, sprite, whatever, they are all under the umbrella of sodas.
Two nations divided by a common language.

Here's one for you, Tom.

Ecstasy - a former taxi.

Nice one, Phil. Opens up the opportunity for a new thread. I'll kick one off.
How about 'fraternizing.' = Breaking wind with friends.
Ooh, here's another one. 'Logarithm.' = A lumberjack's form of contraception.
Come on, there must be better ones from all those fertile minds out there.

VAT 69........ The Pope's telephone number

Prefab. In a time before the Beatles.

Fingerspitzengefühl:

Quote:

...ability of some military commanders, such as Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel, to maintain with great accuracy in attention to detail an ever-changing operational and tactical situation by maintaining a mental map of the battlefield. The term literally means "finger tip feeling"

It's related to a concept of mine which I call "the floppy octopus mind" - a mind with loose, drifting tentacles that allows ideas to drift by, then seizes a choice one with great strength.

Dogma......a bitch with at least one pup.
Cutlass.......Northern girl after accident with knife.
Footloose.....someone with weak ankles.
verbalise.......spoken untruths.
I'll get me coat!