Helicopter parents, noobs and brain candy - Emphasis

Helicopter parents, noobs and brain candy Helicopter parents, noobs and brain candy As a new year begins, you cant help but look back on the one just passed: its gains and losses, its highs and lows, the memorable moments and those best forgotten. So why not do the same for the words and terms that entered our lives or at least the dictionaries in 2011?* You can make your own mind up about which of those categories these words fall into, but more to the point can you pick the correct definition for each from the choices below? 1. boomerang childa young adult who regularly travels abroad, returning home only to save up enough money to go travelling againa young adult who returns to live at his or her family home, especially for financial reasons a child who must divide his or her time between the two households of separated parents2. helicopter parenta parent whose presence in his or her child’s life is sporadic owing to business or other outside responsibilitiesa parent who is overly involved in the life of his or her child a parent who travels extensively with young children in tow3. robocalla telephone call from an automated source that delivers a pre-recorded message to a large number of people a voicemail message delivered by a robotic voice as a result of a text message inadvertently being sent to a landlinethe experience of calling a helpline and being faced with a recorded series of instructions and pre-recorded information4. brain candybroadly appealing, undemanding entertainment that is not intellectually stimulating a person (usually a woman) who is considered to be both highly intelligent and very attractivean ironic term for foods that are supposedly beneficial for one’s body and brain, but not pleasurable to consume5. nooba desirable young man or woman (from ‘nubile’)a foolish mistake or gaffe, perpetrated because one is new to an activitya novice or newcomer to a profession or activity 6. mumpreneura person who makes a living selling items targeted at new mothersa woman who combines running her own business with looking after her children a woman who starts a new career or business after her children have left home7. mamila middle-aged man in Lycra a middle-aged man in leggingsa man who favours dressing in animal-prints8. emberrorista person who records incidents involving friends or acquaintances in embarrassing situations and posts them on the interneta person who targets members of the public or celebrities with practical jokes using hidden cameras for television or online broadcastan organisation or person that seeks to reveal potentially embarrassing information – often as a political weapon 9. foodoira film charting the journey food items take, from cultivation to consumptionthe practice of bringing food into the bedroom (combination of ‘food’ and ‘boudoir’)a blog or book combining memoir and recipes 10. nurdlea very small pellet of plastic that serves as raw material in the manufacture of plastic products an obstacle or hurdle that must be negotiated within an online gaming worldan awkward or strange person Let us know how you got on. Have you used any of the terms? (Weve already heard from a keen cricketer about an alternative meaning for one of them.) If not, will you be adding any of them to your vocabulary? And which ones (if any) are you hoping to forget long before the year is out? * Words taken from 2011 entries in Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, Concise Oxford English Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary And if thats put you in a quizzing mood, why not pit yourself against our fiendish spelling test?