back to article 'Unmute' named one of Oxford Dictionary's words of the year

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 …

  1. Blackjack Silver badge

    [Oxford Languages, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has made “unmumte” one of its words of the year for 2020.]

    Un mum te?

    1. logicalextreme

      It's a hot beverage, like covfefe

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Does one "blind" one's camera too?

    I've only seen mute/unmute for microphones, while the cameras get on/off and not blind/unblind, which would at least be consistent. So, curious about why this is.

    1. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: Does one "blind" one's camera too?

      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.

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Does one "blind" one's camera too?

      "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.)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All things considered, I would have though clusterf*ck would have to be at least an honourable mention.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Further to the comment...

      I think "Raging Clusterf*ck" might be more appropriate.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Omnishambles?

  4. tfewster

    Blursday blues

    I'd not heard "Blursday" before, but it gets my vote.

    Dated 267th March 2020

  5. Chris G

    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™.

    1. Mike 137 Silver badge

      "Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do..."

      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.

      1. Outski
        Thumb Up

        Re: "Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do..."

        Susie Dent approves this message.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: "Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do..."

        I'm just waiting to see when "rouge" is accepted as a synonym for "rogue", as used my many commentards here, eg "Google blamed a rouge engineer".

        1. logicalextreme

          Re: "Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do..."

          You're gonna kick yourself when you see your typo.

          See also: ducking

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            Re: "Presumably Oxford Languages have liittle to do..."

            I was sing to myself at the time.

            MYY, MYY, MYYYYYYY DELILAAAAHH|!

    2. Keven E

      Relevance

      I believe it IS what they do.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      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.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    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.

    1. Avatar of They
      Pint

      Beautiful

      One of the best words to describe the government yet.

  7. Michael Hoffmann Silver badge

    No phrases?

    I suppose it's because entire phrases aren't allowed? "Unmute" is just the button, generally clicked as a result of "you're on mute". That one is most certainly the most common expression I've heard in the last year.

    1. logicalextreme

      Re: No phrases?

      I've heard "you need to unmute" quite a lot. Phrases make it in to word definitions when they're idiomatic, and they naturally form part of the corpus.

  8. TeeCee Gold badge
    Meh

    Zoom-friendly

    ... used to describe dressing for video meetings...

    So, as it's Zoom, that'll be stark naked with a camera pointed at your bollocks I take it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Zoom-friendly

      Only if you work for the New Yorker ...

  9. Danny 2

    The Auld Abnormal

    I bought my dad an Amazon Dot when he started forgetting how his TV remote control works. It's not a panacea, he certainly hasn't learned the word 'unmute'. "Alexis, turn the sound on... Alec, turn the sound on... Danny, turn the bloody sound on!"

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: The Auld Abnormal

      It's a shame we can't choose our own wake word or phrase for these devices. That way you could just change the wake word to Alexis instead of Alexa and solve the problem :-)

      1. logicalextreme

        Re: The Auld Abnormal

        Were I inclined to possess one of those dread machines, I think I'd change it to "OK Google" and see if it immolated.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The Auld Abnormal

          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 ...

      2. Danny 2

        Re: The Auld Abnormal

        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.

        Everyone you love is gone, there is only ice cream

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    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.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mutard

    A person who doesn't know how to use the mute button

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