Welcome to the latest instalment of It Is What It Is, the sister column to Adam Hurrey’s Football Cliches Podcast, a parallel mission into the heart of the tiny things in football you never thought really mattered… until you were offered a closer look.
The football floodgates have finally opened for the dictionary supremos
The annual UK news cycle has some solid guarantees. These are the reliable slow-news-day perennials who keep the wheels turning. Which baby name was finally knocked off the top spot, according to last year’s official birth data? Which British beach is more popular than BERMUDA? Oh, some twin sisters have achieved four A* grades in their A-Levels, have they? Again?
Also, see: Some words that will irritate your grandparents and parents have found their way into Oxford English Dictionary. The OED’s latest quarterly release of new entries include “damfino”, “side hustle”, “jabbed” (in a vaccination context) and — what year is it again? — “influencer”.
Clearly, any emerging vocabulary has to prove itself in our language before the principal record of English words formalises its rise: can “galdem” and “mandem” do it on a cold, wet Tuesday night at the Philological Society? It appears so. And now — just six convenient weeks before the World Cup kicks off — the floodgates have opened to bolster the ranks of mainstream footballing terminology.
This isn’t a bold, cutting-edge dive into modern footballing terminology at first glance.
