Modern talking

Blogosphere
• Noun Personal websites and weblogs collectively.

Bloviate
• Verb [US] talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way.

Bookcrossing
• Noun The practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

Bumsters
• Noun Trousers that are cut very low on the hips.

Central casting
• Noun [N Amer] the department of a film production company that hires actors, especially for bit parts as stock characters.

Congestion charge
• Noun [Brit] a charge made to drive into an area, typically a city centre, that suffers heavy traffic.

Designer baby
• Noun A baby whose genetic make-up has been selected in order to eradicate a particular defect, or to ensure that a particular gene is present.

Desk jockey
• Noun [N Amer] a person who works at a desk; an office worker.

Ecological footprint
• Noun The amount of land required to sustain a particular person or society.

First responder
• Noun [N Amer] a person whose job entails being the first on the scene of an emergency, such as a fire fighter or police officer.

Hazmat
• Noun Dangerous substances; hazardous material.

Industrial language
• Noun [Brit] swearing.

Junk DNA
• Noun DNA that does not code for a protein, usually occurs in repetitive sequences of nucleotides, and does not seem to serve any useful purpose.

Low-hanging fruit
• Noun Something easily achieved or overcome.

Mentalist
• Noun [Brit] an eccentric or mad person.

Mini-me
• Noun A person closely resembling a smaller or younger version of another.

Mystery shopper
• Noun A person employed to visit a shop or restaurant incognito in order to assess the quality of the goods or services.

Nanobot
• Noun A very small self-propelled machine, especially one that has some degree of autonomy and can reproduce.

Oxygen debt
• Noun A temporary oxygen shortage in the tissues arising from exercise.

Punditocracy
• Noun An elite or influential class of experts or political commentators.

Serial comma
• Noun A comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’.

Show pony
• Noun [Brit] an attractive, stylish, or flamboyant person, especially a performer, who enjoys being in the limelight.

Speed dating
• Noun An organised social activity in which people have a series of short conversations with potential partners in order to determine whether there is mutual interest.

Spyware
• Noun Computing software that enables a user to obtain covert information about someone’s computer activities by transmitting data covertly from their hard drive.

Threequel
• Noun The third film, book, event in a series; a second sequel.

Tiggerish
• Adjective [Brit] very lively, energetic and cheerful.

Weekend warrior
• Noun [N Amer] a person who participates in an activity only in his or her spare time.

Wiggle room
• Noun [N Amer] limited capacity or scope for negotiation, especially in order to modify a previous statement or decision.