Notes on OED's March 2008 release of new words

hellzapoppin' adj.

Soon after the release of the 1941 film musical Hellzapoppin', based on a 1938 theatre production Hellzapoppin (contemporary promotional material for the theatre version seems to prefer no apostrophe at the end, while most posters for the movie include one), this adjective appears on the scene, used to mean ‘action-packed’ or ‘ostentatious’. However the writers (or promoters) of the musical did not pluck this eye-catching title from nowhere, although the inclusion of a ‘z’ does appear to be their innovation; we have found a long line of evidence back to 1875 for the phrase ‘hell's a-popping’, used as a rough equivalent to ‘all hell is breaking loose’

ecopolitics n.¹

One of the important aspects of the current release of revised words from across the alphabet is the huge growth it shows in the use of the combining form eco-, which in turn reflects the wide range of environmental concerns which have gained increased prominence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. This word, however, provides evidence of the use of a different kind of eco-, conveying the sense ‘economic’. First found in 1944 and already fading from use by 1980, as ecological issues begin fully to lay claim to the prefix, the word seems to have lost the battle for its particular linguistic niche, overcome by its stronger, more widespread rival eco-politics n.² Economics still has its prefix, though, having retreated to the safer ground offered by the prefix econo-, another word included in this release of new material.

girlcott v.

Humorously understanding the verb boycott as showing the noun boy in its first element (it in fact derives from Captain Charles C. Boycott, who was an early recipient of the treatment to which he gave his name), this formation, denoting the carrying out of a boycott by women, has had a long life. It is first recorded in a short newspaper sketch of 1884, describing how the young women of Groton, Massachusetts ‘have resolved to girlcott any young man that smokes or goes out of the theatre between acts’.

immunosurveillance n.

Scientists in fast-moving research fields have to find ways to express new concepts, and when this involves adapting words that are already in use, the result can be vivid and evocative. When we encounter the word immunosurveillance, our imaginative curiosity is aroused by all the connotations of the word surveillance. Such a word easily becomes a part of the figurative vocabulary of health and disease, portraying cancer as a clandestine or subversive intruder against which the body must remain vigilant.