New edition of OED scores a slang-dunk
Star accused of sex assault
PAUL Gascoigne grabbed a woman on a train and kissed her on the lips, a court heard. She described the kiss as: “Sloppy. It was not like a peck on the cheek, it was very fully on the lips.” Asked if it was “gentle”, she replied: “No, it was forceful.”
Fellow passenger Rebecca Jaques, who was across the aisle on the train heading north from York in August last year, said: “He put his hands on this lady’s head and put his tongue in her mouth.”
She said the woman appeared “very shocked”, adding: “It was very clear she neither expected or wanted that behaviour.” Ms Jaques said she confronted Gazza, who said: “I didn’t mean anything by that.” Another passenger, Alisan Burden, sitting opposite the woman, said Gazza insisted: “I was just trying to give her some confidence.” Gascoigne, who denies sexual assault, was later contacted by police. Prosecutor William Mousley told Teesside crown court: “He initially told them that he had, in his own words, ‘kissed a fat lass’.”
He said the next day Gazza told police “he had overheard someone abuse her build” and claimed he had “given her a peck on the lips to reassure her because he felt sorry for her”.
The trial continues. SIMPLES Aleksandr Orlov WE are sure to find sumfin new in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary… or is that summink or sumthin?
The trio are among 650 additions, along with “simples” – used by TV ad meerkat Aleksandr Orlov.
Basketball move “slamdunk” also makes the cut along with “whatevs” – “to indicate the speaker is disinclined to engage or indifferent to the matter”.
Star Wars jargon making the cut includes lightsaber, Jedi and padawan.
Some blasted the additions as a dumbing-down.
An Oxford resident said: “The dictionary was like the Bible. I despair at the way people talk nowadays.”
Dave Paxton added: “If you can’t maintain the level of education, you may as well lower standards.”