New coinage

In Competition No. 2420 you were invited to invent words describing something familiar which fill a need in the English language.

The germ of this competition was a book called The Meaning of Tingo which assembles ‘extraordinary words from around the world’, from which I learnt that the Japanese have a single word to describe ‘a woman who appears pretty when seen from behind but not from the front’ and another very useful one which means ‘to try out a new sword on a passer-by’. I make way now for your own glorious neologisms. Each item wins its inventor £4, and Nicholas Hodgson gets the bonus fiver.

Nompathy: concern felt by public for victim of crime whom they don’t know but who is referred to by his or her first name by the media

Backdraper: person who seeks to give the impression that he is at work by putting his jacket on the back of his chair

Blunk: person one wishes to ridicule but is reluctant to do so because of a disability

Meteritis: belief that value can always be quantified, exemplified by unhealthy obsession with targets, league tables etc

Regrats: repeated expressions of thanks, e.g.,