dirty little secret / ˈdɜ:rti ˈlɪtl ˈsi:krət /

There are some words that activate some of our inner instincts. Secret is one of those. And the expression "dirty little secret" is a lucky one: it promises a confidence, something that most people ignore, and probably a bit shameful.

It usually goes along success stories, and though in some cases it can be less shameful and more positive, such as a shortcut for better results, more often it refers to a blemish in that success story not yet public.

For instance, in the Freakonomics post “The Quarterback Quandary”, Stephen Dubner says:

It’s not fair to say that the NFL draft is a total crapshoot. First-round players generally perform better than second-round players, who generally perform better than third-rounders and so on.
But there’s a dirty little secret that most people won’t acknowledge, or don’t even recognize. Selecting a player in the draft is essentially trying to predict the future, and human beings are simply not very good at it.

Early this year there was an interesting The New York Times article called The Dirty Little Secrets of Search, about the surprising appearance of certain companies' names on top of Google searches not so clearly related to the companies activities:

The New York Times asked an expert in online search, Doug Pierce of Blue Fountain Media in New York, to study this question, as well as Penney’s astoundingly strong search-term performance in recent months. What he found suggests that the digital age’s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue. And the intrigue starts in the sprawling, subterranean world of “black hat” optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.

So the dirty little secret is that those companies were manipulating Google to show their names in a prevalent position.

And, finally, I found an even simpler example, in one of Scott Bourne's Photofocus post "Seven Ways To Reduce Sensor Dust". It starts:

It’s the dirty little secret of digital photography. Dust on the sensor.

This is a pretty clear example: the caveat they didn't warn you about when you bought your camera.

Do you want to learn more dirty little secrets? Just follow this link.

no-brainer / nəʊˈbreɪnər /

Homer Simpson,
a no-brainer (almost literally)

It is very funny that English seems to have 'no-brainers' even though there are no 'brainers' of any kind. How can we guess the meaning of the negation of something that doesn't exist?

Well, actually it is not that difficult: a no-brainer is not a person, but a question or, especially, a decision so clear that even someone with no brains can get it right.

Example 1: http://www.bythom.com/2011%20Nikon%20News.htm

Touchfire is a clear overlay that makes the on-screen iPad keyboard feel like a real keyboard. I don't know how to say it any simpler. At one ounce and iPad Smart Cover friendly, it's sort of a no-brainer if you do any significant typing on an iPad, as you don't need to add an external keyboard to your kit

Example 2: Arts Beat - It’s a No-Brainer: AMC Orders Third Season of ‘The Walking Dead’
In this case the expression is in the title of this blog post. As it goes on, it lets you understand why this is a no-brainer:

After a recent episode of “The Walking Dead” that vividly revealed the contents of a zombie’s stomach, AMC has decided it still has a healthy appetite for that popular series about the survivors of an undead apocalypse. [...]The second-season premiere of “The Walking Dead,” broadcast on Oct. 16, set a ratings record for AMC, drawing 7.3 million viewers in total and 4.8 million were ages 18 to 49, making it the highest-rated drama episode ever on cable in that age category.

Example 3: Finally, The Phrase Finder discusses the origin of no-brainer in the 50's, and even contains a cartoon by Carl Grubert showing an early example in the Long Beach Independent (1959)

Unfortunatelly, despite knowing the meaning of no-brainer, I don't find it very funny. Maybe I am missing something else.

caveat / ˈkæviɑt /

Even though I have heard it quite a few times in the last months, this is one of these words that was not only completely new to me, but that I also find hard to get it right. I'm supposed to know by now the meaning, a warning to the reader, or something (e.g. a limitation) that needs to be considered because, though not necessarily bad, could be negative depending on the circumstances. So? Well, I understand it, somehow, but not so enough that I would be confortable using it.

Anyway, let's see some examples:
Engadget Podcast 262 - 10.28.2011 (time 16:25)

I would be shocked if Microsoft was throwing as much of its weitght behind this deal and it didn't get brought to the States. I'm sure that is a big caveat in their deal that they worked out, is that, you know, Nokia is finally in the try of really, really have a presence in the US

So this was one of those things that had to be considered.
New York Times: Calculating Poverty

A caveat: this data is not the same as what the Census Bureau will release on Monday, which among other things uses a different cost-of-living adjustment

 This is clearly a warning to the reader.

House of Japan: Sony Europe only PSP E-1000

It functions just like a regular PSP with one major caveat: it won’t have any WiFi connectivity

And this is kind of both.

In any case, whenever you hear the word 'caveat', be cautious.

bottom line / ˈbɑːtəm laɪn /

It is a well proven best practice to end long writings with a short summary that wraps up our message in a few lines. It is not only a matter of structure, but also a way to ensure good communication and that the main points are remembered.

CNET reviews' summaries
always include the good, the bad,
and the bottom line

When I studied English, I learned that the most common ways to close such kind of writing forms would probably start with something like "In conclusion", "In short", "Summarizing", but I don't recall having ever used "bottom line". And yet it is so frequently used.

The "bottom line" is the key message, the short sentence you want your audience to remember and, therefore, very similar to "conclusion" (conclusion would be the end of your reasoning thread).

However, "bottom line" is not only used at the end of writings. In speech, it is also used when the speaker has extended a bit long about something and wants to summarize it in a sentence. But let's see it in a few examples.

This Week in Photography 226: Retro Active (38:00)

If you are and old school shooter who is used to having an aperture ring in your lens then you may actually still desire to have a lens that has an aperture ring. [Shooters] jumping in the photo world today, he's not going to cry over the lack a lot of the buttons and dials that I feel really comfortable driving in my Canon gear today. So, ultimately the bottom line here, I don't care whether is photographers and cameras or a chef and a knife who is julienning a carrot, there is a point at which you become so good in whatever tool you are using that it truly does become an extension of your thought

Ok, despite the "bottom line" I got lost too, and I'm not sure if this is the most descriptive example, but it is a recent one, and one that illustrates its use in speech.

Let's see one in writting.

The Online Photographer: The Pentax Q System

Bottom line: you want to stop down very far to get increased depth of field or slow shutter speeds? Then you're going to sacrifice peak resolution.

And another one:

New York Times: Martin Scorsese’s Magical ‘Hugo’ (interview)

[Martin Scorsese] The bottom line with “Hugo” is it’s a story about the boy and his relationship to his dead father. It’s more serious than funny.

So I think that it is a quite convenient expression, isn't it?

über / ˈu:bər /



The Simpson's episode
"The Fight before Christmas"
was brought to you by the Umlaut

 This may not be, strictly speaking, an English word, but it has become über-popular lately in this language. Basically, it is a substitute for the 'super-' prefix, which is related to its original German meaning, but not exactly the same. My instinct says that it should be used to emphasize adjectives, and I find something weird when it precedes nouns, but nevertheless it is used a lot in this way.

I can think of several reasons for its recent presence it today's speech, like, for instance, that 'super' may be already a bit worn out, or that though it is a foreign word, it is an easy one, but I am sure that it has a lot to do also with the umlaut (the ¨ sign over the u), that makes it classy.

The umlaut over the u (which can be alternatively written 'ue'), by the way, means that the original pronunciation is not a normal u, but somewhat closer to the French 'u'. A simple shortcut could be to move your lips as though pronouncing a u (closed lips, tongue forward), and then try to pronounce an i. But it is better not to try too hard, or you may risk to look über-petulant.

Example 1: The Online Photographer: A Few Examples Of Naturalism in Photography

And while we're on to female photographers, Linda McCartney. Yes, I'm one of "those people" who think that Linda would have been better known and better thought of if she hadn't been an über-celebrity's spousal unit

Example 2: Engadget Podcast 262 - 10.28.2011 (time 50:35)

The Motorola Atrix 2 review went out today from Brad. The overall conclusion is that this is a very nice phone but is not the World conquering über-phone that the original Atrix 4G was expecting

Example 3: Kai on the World’s Most Expensive Leica

So, this is one extravagant trophy for the über upper-class, though I really hope they donate it to a museum because that’s where it is best appreciated.

Closing with an über-funny joke would be so easy... that I will just bite my tongue and spare this last one.

game-changer / ɡeɪm ˈtʃeɪndʒər /

If you want to create big expectactions about something or someone, say that it is a game-changer. Really. This is not only a cool, modern expression, but it is also applied to cool, modern stuff. So twice as cool.

Game-changers are supposed to be so different, that things will never be the same. Theoretically game-changers could turn situations worse, but I have always seen it used positively.

Example 1:

iPhone 4S Camera Hands-on Review (time 15:15)

From time to time, a new product comes along that completely changes the way we do things. Fifteen years ago that product was the compact digital camera, that changed the way we take everyday photos. Today, the iPhone 4S could be considered the game-changer

Example 2:

From the dialogue between a womanizer and his friend in the movie: Crazy, Stupid, Love

- I met a girl.

- Oh, really?

- She is a game-changer.

- A game-changer? No way.

- So much I want to meet her mother right now.

Example 3:

And if you want to learn who are today's game-changers according to Bloomberg, they have even created a documentary series (highly recommended, by the way):

http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/shows/game-changers/ 

The list contains the usual suspects (Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, etc.) but also some surprises. You can watch it online, so check it out.

oftentimes /ˈɒf(ə)ntʌɪmz, ˈɒft(ə)n-/

This may not be a fancy new word but, quite the contrary, a very old one. However, I am amazed that I survived so many years without (consciously) knowing it, as now I hear it everywhere.

 According to the dictionary, it is an archaic word in Britain, but a rather normal one in the US. Probably I have already heard it dozens of times, and simply not realized because its meaning is pretty obvious, but I have the feeling that it may have become more popular in podcasts because it sounds good.

In my own language, Spanish, it often(times) happens that in journalism there is a tendency to use longer words because they just sound fancier or more intellectual (may I say wordier?).

Well, maybe I am wrong about this, but in any case 'oftentimes' is a word used quite frequently, so it is worth to be known.

Example 1: The Candid Frame #123 - Ryan Libre (time 3:28)

You identify yourself as a documentary photographer and, how does that develop? Because, for a lot of people, when they travel to South East Asia, they oftentimes think of travel photography [...]

Example 2: This Week in Photo (TWiP) #223 - F Cancer (around minute 41 - the transcription may be not accurate as I had trouble to understand part of it)

As Frederick said, you've got to come from the same demographics, so if you are of European descent your chances may be high, because they've got bigger registries and that but, oftentimes the process of starting to look forward to a disease starts costing more, and they kind of think that the person passes away before they find a correct match.



"Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when
we stoop than when we soar"
William Wordsworth



One comment about its usage: though it is basically an alternative for 'often', it doesn't work in the same way. You can say, for instance, that

'Oftentimes' can be heard very often.

but it would not work reversed:



'Often' can be heard very oftentimes

You could if, instead, you placed it at the beginning:

Very often you can hear the word 'oftentimes', but oftentimes you will hear instead the word 'often'

And tell me: after reading this, have you started to hear it?