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Sun 18 Nov, 2007 06:10 pm
Being an anicent language, Hebrew often has to have new words created to keep up with changing times. The latest approved entry is the word "lecondel" which means to create a lot of activitity, but produce few results. The new verb, that appeared in Israeli government circles, is based on Ms. Rice's first name and her numerous trips and meetings that produce no results.
English usage: Today's meetings were all lecondel.
This is true about Ms. Rice, but can anyone else think of other people who should have a word inspired by their actions?
Ha! Good one.
The Netherlands had a Christian Democratic Prime Minister in the eighties called Ruud Lubbers - he later became the UN high commissioner on refugees for a short while, until he left under the cloud of sexual harassment charges.
Lubbers inspired two new words. There was "belubberen", which meant cheating, or swindling; and there was "lubberiaans", as in "a lubberiaans use of language", which meant woolly, vague, ambivalent, verbose. Havent heard "belubberen" in forever, but "lubberiaans" you still hear occasionally.