Summertime blues

These words have all worked their way into the language over the last year or so. If you don’t know what they mean, don't worry. Nobody knew what they meant in 2004.

Vacation deprivation
Right now, somebody somewhere will be complaining about vacation deprivation (or a holiday not taken because of a big workload). This person is probably not in Italy as, on average, the Italians take more days off per year than any other nationality (42 days); but he could well be in the US, which lags well behind the rest of the world (12-14 days, depending on your source).

Post and pray
In case you're wondering, Denmark has an average of 30 days vacation (just below Sweden’s 32). So if you have less vacation than that, you might wish to post and pray. This involves putting your CV on an online job site and hoping you get a response. An employer can also post and pray i.e. stick a job ad in the paper and sit with fingers crossed until the right person walks in – which has been common practice for eons.

Startup artist
The way to avoid all this hassle is to become a startup artist. As the name suggests, a startup artist specializes in creating new businesses, which requires having a good idea, capital, a massive amount of energy and a short attention span.

• vacation deprivation noun, holiday not taken because of workload
• post and pray verb, 1. place a job advert in a paper, magazine or on the web and hope the right person answers 2. put your resumé on a website and wait for a response
• startup artist noun, a person specializing in forming new companies

 

---

WordNerd
All these words have appeared on www.wordspy.com. Check out their website if you want to see more.