Nice Words from the Economist
Despite its stark right-wing leaning, I am fond of the weekly news magazine The Economist.
The magazine is strong on analysis and pretty good when it comes to English. I’ve been reading it on and off for decades, and recently started reading it again on a regular basis.
Over the years, I’ve picked up dozens of interesting words and phrases from this magazine.
Here are two dozen words I’ve culled from a few recent issues of the Economist.
- Achche Din
Example: “The elite voted for Mr. Modi’s promise of achche din – better days.” (Economist, May 30, 2026, P.41) - Dark Tourism
Meaning: Places where bombings, battles, torture and atrocities have taken place, disaster zones, concentration camps, assassination sites, prisons
Example: “The term “dark-tourism” was coined in 1996 by J. John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, two academics who observed the public’s interest in visiting the site of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.” (Source: Economist, December 6, 2025, P.75) - Tall-poppy syndrome
Meaning: A social attitude, often associated with Australian and New Zealand culture, where people who are successful, famous, or stand out are criticized, resented, or “cut down” for their achievements. (Source: Economist, April 18-24, 2026) - hors de combat
Meaning: out of the fight, injured, disabled, out of the running
Example: “It is illegal to strike people who are hors de combat, that is, out of action and posing no threat.” (Source: Economist, December 6, 2025, P.23) - Appstinence
Meaning: Appstinence, according to the Economist, means “ditching the [mobile] device for long stretches.” (Source: Economist, February 21, 2026, p.80-81) An interesting play on abstinence, a familiar English word. - Conniptions
Meaning: a fit of rage, hysteria, or alarm
Example: “The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has caused conniptions by opting for things like “youthquake” (2021) and “goblin mode” (2022).”
(Source: Economist, December 6, 2025, p.75) - Youthquake
Meaning: The OED defines the word as “A significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young.” - Brain rot
Meaning: The Economist defines brain rot “as a state caused by overconsumption of mindlessly entertaining junk, particularly online. The term is also applied to the junk causing the mental decline.” (Source: Economist, December 6, 2025, p.76) - Slop
Meaning: The Economist writes that the meaning of slop “has evolved from mud and slush, through a weak liquid used as a poorly nourishing food, to any kind of food scraps, to nonsense or rubbish.” (Source: Economist, December 6, 2025, p.76)
Example: “Slop merchants clog up the Internet with drivel.” (Economist, Dec. 6, 2025, p.76) - Lactology
Meaning: medical specialty dealing with breastfeeding issues; a specialty that does not exist (Source: Economist, May16, 2026, P.12-14, P.74-75)
Example: “This lack of “lactology” is bad for infants and mothers.” (Source: Economist, May 30, 2026, P.12) - Haj & Hajji
Meaning: The word Haj means making a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, a duty incumbent on most Muslims, while Hajji refers to the person making the trip. (Source: Economist, May 30, 2026) - Sempiternal Theme
Meaning: everlasting, perpetual theme
Example: “This revived her sempiternal theme, the repression of women. “(Source: Economist, June 13, 2026, p.86) - Heterodox (Economist, January 3, 2026, p.78)
Meaning: Holding unconventional beliefs, opinions - Robin Hood State
Meaning: Soaking the rich
Example: ‘The “Robin Hood” state, which takes from the rich to give to the poor, has obvious appeal.’ (Economist, February 21, 2026, p.9) - Liminal (Economist, January 3, 2026, p.76)
Meaning: Relating to a sensory threshold, a in-between state, at a point of transition, barely perceptible - Gen-Z Socialism
Meaning: “It is the brand of leftism, made for the TikTok era, that today’s young revolutionaries support.” (Economist, June 6, 2026, p.7) - Siloviki
Meaning: People from military, spy or security services background in Russia
Example: “[Yukos] was broken up and the bits sold to siloviki-linked firms at knock-down prices.” (Economist, June 20, 2026, p.73) - Phlegmatic
Meaning: calm, unemotional, sluggish, or not easily excited
Example: “Their unlikely champion was a cheery, phlegmatic London-based tax lawyer, Tim Osborne.” (Source: Economist, June 20, 2026, p.73) - Yahoo Boys
Meaning: Nigerian youngsters scamming western adults online by pretending to be in love with them
Example: “The Yahoo boys call their victims “clients” to make their work seem legitimate; some see their relationships as transactional, providing companionship in exchange for cash.” (Source: Economist, June 20, 2026, p.74) - Token Legend
Meaning: A top user of AI tokens in a business
Example: “Companies showed off staff’s AI use on internal leaderboards. Meta’s display awarded top users titles like “Token Legend.”(Source: Economist, June 20, 2026, p.57) - Tokenmaxxing
Meaning: “Burning through vast numbers of [AI] tokens.” (Source: Economist, June 20, 2026, p.57)
Example: Corporations are cutting down drastically on tokenmaxxing. - Hallucinations
Meaning: “a class of errors where [AI] models make up confident-sounding but factually incorrect answers.” Example: (Source: Economist, June 27, 2026, p.16) - Kill Chain
Meaning: A military term meaning “the process of finding targets, deciding what to do and conducting an attack.” (Source: Economist, May 16, 2026, p.82) - Engel’s Pause
Meaning: “The period during the Industrial Revolution in which working-class wages grew more slowly than the wider economy.” (Source: Economist, May 16-22, 2026, p.9) - Pinteresque
Meaning: Of the style of British playwright Harold Pinter whose works were characterized by awkward pauses, hidden meanings and psychological tension
Example: “Mr Coben’s plots, then, are not Pinteresque.” (Source: Economist, June 20, 2026, p.76) - Carouse
Meaning: to drink liquor freely or excessively
Example: “Málaga is thronged with tourists … carousing at the pavement bars or queuing for one of half-a-dozen art museums.” (Source: Economist, June 14, 2025, p.44) - Bride Price
Meaning: Money paid to newlyweds or the bride’s family by the groom’s side
Example: “In many countries the custom of paying a “bride price” has faded as people have become richer. Not in China, where the practice remains deeply entrenched.” (Source: Economist, June 14, 2025, p.33)