If you are outraged by the chaotic scenes in our Parliament, writes V.R. Narayanaswami in Mint today, you can give it a name with a Miltonic touch, "parliamonium" (from Parliament and pandemonium).
Narayanaswami, a former professor of English who writes a fortnightly column in the paper on English usage, has devoted his latest article to a selection of the "words of the year". He begins by introducing us to a process of word-making called "blending". We learn that Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, coined several such words for fun, and it was Carroll who named these words portmanteau words. The most famous of his portmanteau words, writes Narayanaswami, is "galumph", formed from gallop and triumph.
We also learn about other top words of 2010, including "refudiate", "spillcam", and "hikikomori".
Read Narayanaswami's column in its entirety here: "Words of the year, a selection".
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My favourite is 'parliamonium'. I hope at least this year we don't have to suffer from more parliamoniums and get to see our 'leaders' do some work...
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