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buzzword

BUZZWORD

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views updated May 23 2018

BUZZWORD, also buzz word. An informal term for a word that is fashionable and used more to impress than inform: for example, power with the sense ‘pertaining to powerful persons, indicating political or economic power’, which appeared in the US in the 1980s in such phrases as power breakfast, power colour, power necktie, power suit, power writing. Buzz words are particularly associated with the terminology and JARGON of corporate business, government, and the sciences. Compare KEYWORD, VOGUE.

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language TOM McARTHUR

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