Best New Words for 2008

October 2, 3:22 PMPop Culture ExaminerDominic Patten

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Can you just put it down & leave it in the car? 

 I must be getting old.

For one thing I can admit that I am totally nomophobic.

Secondly, I cringed when "homeboy" was put in the dictionary over a decade ago because I thought it was an out of date phrase by then and a terrible attempt by linguists to be hip. Now I'm over that youthful snobbery, I love the gymnastics of the vernacular that postmodern English has become.

Susie Dent is the author of the recently released Words of the Year, which in my old guy opinion, is more fun than a night of Lewis Black and Chris Rock.

Here are, in my opinion, the best of the new words from Words of the Year to pepper your cubicle conversation with...try not to show off.

1. Nomophic - the fearful paralysis of being away from your cell or Blackberry and not being able stay in touch with others via texting or talking. I actually think this is well on the way to becoming a serious epidemic.The last time I had dinner at the Grove in LA, I couldn't get over how every table at the restaurant had at least two cell phones on them and how most of the couples, including my date and I, were typing away into their phones and not talking to each other ... and don't say it's an LA thing cause you know it's not.

2. Undo-pasty - the plastic surgery that you have to fix up the botched surgery you had before. This is very much an LA thing, I might add.

3. Momnesia - I have a friend who is about to have her second baby who is already suffering from this scattered and forgetful condition that mothers fall into during the first year after giving birth. Actually, now I think about it, my own Mother seems to get a touch of momnesia whenever she's called on anything.

4. Glamping - You won't see much of this at Burning Man, but you will see it at the Coachella Festival, you certainly see it at Glasonbury and you can pay a lot of money to do it in the deserts outside Dubai or the landscape around Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It's the luxury camping and it is a growth industry ... and I usually hate camping

5. Ninja Loan - in this era of the Bailout, this one is particularly fitting as it is credit extended to someone without an ability to pay it back. Hence, the acronym of No Income, No Job, No Assets. Ouch!