[Oxford Languages, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has made “unmumte” one of its words of the year for 2020.]
Un mum te?
Oxford Languages, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has made "unmute" one of its words of the year for 2020. The publisher chose not to name a single word of the year for 2020, preferring to instead note that 2020 has seen so much happen, so quickly, that considering the many changes in language use during the year …
In general, one either has one's camera on or off, unlike one's microphone, which may change mode, often unintentionally in the undesired direction, repeatedly over the course of a given meeting. Conversely, while the phrase "blind your camera" could potentially be used, I find the rather more pedestrian "Dear God, man, hide your shame!" to be remarkably effective.
"Blind the camera" would be parallel if we said "deafen the microphone", but we don't. For some reason (I don't have my reference works handy, and an online search was uninformative) the transitive verb mute, in the sense of "render silent", was adapted to mean "render unhearing" - a transfer of agency from the result (sound is not reproduced) to the cause (sound isn't received to be reproduced).
I suspect this is metonymical slippage from all-in-one recording and playback devices such as cassette recorders, where users might make the recording itself the direct object of the verb: "the conversation was muted for some period of time at this point in the recording". Note the "Rec Mute" button on this old Teac X-3R, for example. Then usage slid to applying that action to the microphone as remote-muting switches appeared on mics.
The parallel for a camera might be something like "show" and "unshow", which sounds decidedly odd, but I'm pretty sure I've heard people say "please show your camera" in videoconferences. (I'm not going to get into the contentious subject of the propriety of those requests here.)
Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do, so cataloguing the latest fleeting linguistic fashions and buzzwords is how they attempt relevance.
I am quite surprised that ' new normal' and 'great reset' were not included given their prevalence in various media.
The 'Great Reset™' seems to be occupying the thoughts of many who think they know better what our collective futures and economies ought to be. Considering how well they have run things up to now, I won't be holding my breath while waiting for the New Improved Normal™.
Actually it's probably getting harder for them. Not so far back the literary language was relatively stable. It took from 1879 to 1928 for the first edition of the Oxford dictionary to emerge and it eschewed all but the bare minimum of what was considered "slang".
Things now move much faster due to the sheer speed and volume of mass communications, so a much higher proportion of the language is "slang" or "jargon" (neologisms that haven't yet been tested by time).
Add to that recognition that the distinction between the literary language and the vernacular has been disappearing for many years now, and that due to etymology no longer being taught many neologisms are not particularly rational, and maintaining a descriptive dictionary clearly becomes quite a challenge.
Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do, so cataloguing the latest fleeting linguistic fashions and buzzwords is how they attempt relevance.
That is what descriptive lexicographers do. The OED and other products of OL are a valuable resource to people working in a variety of areas, and an interesting commentary on the evolution of English.
But I expect you and your upvoters are too busy doing Real Work to appreciate that sort of thing. Glad you could take time out of your busy schedule to piss on the labors of others, though.
I myself have been using the word kakistocracy a lot of late, largely as it's a relatively profanity-free way of describing the UK as it currently is, although it seems to be straddling the line of kakistocracy/kleptocracy at present.
The words I'd use to describe Dim Jon Sun and his cronies would probably pad out a few volumes of the OED as well.
Sadly, they seem to have thought of that - not that it's completely impossible to get Alexa to do amusing things (intentionally or otherwise)
Once upon a while ago, we tried to get Alexa and Siri to start arguing with each other, to no avail.
Maybe we needed Cortana as a go-between ...
I'm printing a list of accepted commands for him as an aide-mémoire. I also got him voice activated LED bulbs.
I assumed he'd use the dot to play music too, but he says he can't remember the music he likes unless he sees a list of it. I put all of his music on a phone, he lost the phone, and I put it all on the TV, he can't work the controller. So I'm also printing out a list of all the music he liked so he can ask Alexa.
Sooner or later he'll learn he can order ice cream deliveries from Amazon and I'll be redundant.
I would have thought "poo" would have made the list for the UK. I received my NHS Bowel Cancer Test Kit this week - and the instructions give "poo sticks" a new outing.
It could be argued that UK society now regards even older teens as having inferior mental capabilities as undifferentiated "children". This may account for the noticeable language shift to using previously infantile terms or euphemisms.