Like mushrooms in fallen leaves, new words keep popping up overnight. Also, is there an English word that means “the in-laws of your son or daughter“? And what does it mean when someone says, “Well, that was odder than Dick’s hatband!”?
Af-Pak n.— Note: Also AFPAK. «He is understood to have ordered military chiefs to build a revised strategy on the foundation that his first priority is stopping another terror attack against America from what is commonly referred to as the “Af-Pak...
compellance n.— «The truth is that most political observers in Pakistan have become knee-jerk and non-cerebral, giving Pakistan’s enemy a handle through what is called “compellance”: get the enemy to do what it wants to do for self-destruction...
Busharraf n.— «Polls showed Musharraf’s popularity was in free fall at 15 per cent. Some 64 per cent of Pakistanis said they viewed the president’s backers in Washington as “the single biggest threat” to the nation. And people had recently taken to...
half-pat adj.— «When described as a diasporic writer, Shamsie had something interesting to say. She coined her own phrase to describe where she writes from—“half-pat.” Not ex-pat or nomad, but just somebody who has been exposed to different spaces...
string of pearls n.— «The second event has been much quieter but has more ominous implications, Beijing’s steady expansion of its “string of pearls” strategy. A new phrase coined by geo-strategists’ for Chinese efforts to increase access to global...