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One
very common way of creating new words at the moment is to combine two
words that already exist in order to form a "new compound".
A
word which seems to be rarely out of the news is rage, especially
in two combinations road rage and
air
rage.
Road rage occurs when one driver gets angry with another driver,
perhaps because he has been overtaken or has been following a car which
he thinks is driving too slowly. A road rage driver then does something
stupid, such as bumping the other car, hitting the other driver,
or even, on a couple of occasions, going so far as to kill him.
Air rage is a growing phenomenon; indeed it's being discussed in
the Houses of Parliament these days. Men, usually drunk, lose
their temper while they are passengers in a plane, and attack either
other passengers, or the crew. One case of air rage was so bad that an
air stewardess needed stitches for her injuries; and in another case a
violent passenger tried to open the plane's emergency door when it was
flying at 10,000 metres.
Other examples of compounds with "rage" are not quite so
serious. Sometimes, in a supermarket, one shopper gets angry with
another and hits her or rams her trolley in an exhibition of trolley
rage. In a school a child gets angry with a teacher and
attacks her, in an outburst of school
rage. On a golf course one player explodes with golf
rage and attacks other players for their lack of courtesy.
And it's even been known for a nerd to attack his computer when
it crashes just as he's about to find the information he's
looking for on the net: a classic case of net
rage.
Another word frequently used in compounds is abuse. Some of these
are amusing: you might indulge in snack
abuse by eating too much between meals. And tennis players
sometimes incur fines for racket abuse,
when they throw their racket down onto the ground or across the court if
they've hit a bad shot or not been given a point.
Others are more serious. Substance abuse
is the use of illegal drugs of some kind. Old
age abuse (sometimes called granny
abuse) is the maltreatment of old people who can't protect
themselves properly. Perhaps the most common of all is child
abuse, which can be either physical cruelty to children or
sexual cruelty, even incest.
And surely there are many other such compounds which you'll notice if
you look out for them.
GLOSSARY:
rage:
violent
state of extreme anger
bump: knock against with violence (embestir)
drunk: under the influence of alcohol
trolley: (UK) basket on wheels used for serving food, carrying luggage or
shopping ("changuito" in Argentina)
outburst: sudden violent emotion
nerd: a studious person who spends a lot of time on a
computer
crashes: (about computers) stops operating
abuse:
maltreatment,
cruel or inhuman treatment
amusing: comic, funny
indulge:
give free rein to (dar rienda suelta a)
fines: penalties
granny: (familiar use) grandma, grandmother
Source:
New English Digest - Author:
Gwyneth
Fox
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