Neologisms

I came across two new words today: the first, hyperintellectualism, I've not seen before and would hate to be accused of (has anyone else come across the term?); the second I coined, and it's something that frequently happens to me, much to my wife's chagrin -- namely lyric-jam. This is when fragments of a song's lyrics lodge in your mind and, typically, repeatedly come out of your mouth, for the joy or grief of those within earshot. For the last 36 hours, I've been pleasantly stuck on Bob Marley's, "This is my message to you: don't worry ... every little thing, it's gonna be all right."

I recently learnt that the Macquarie Dictionary nominates an annual Word of the Year; the winner for 2008 was toxic debt. Based on frequency of use, it's an understandable choice -- but an uninspiring one, I reckon. Two words I prefer are helicopter parenting, for its aptness, and flashpacker (a backpacker who travels in relative luxury), because it's fun.

* To be fair, as these Marley lyrics may show, mangled-lyric-jam is the particular beast that usually gets me.