A couple of recent finds:
First, a BBC News Magazine article on 'shill reviewing'. I've never come across the AmE word 'shill' before but I have encountered a few shill (or false) customer reviews in my time. The article also lists some other striking terms such as 'Amazon bombing' and 'Astroturfing'.
Second, the word 'squelette' (as in French for 'skeleton'), meaning a 'ruined' building that was never actually completed. Stan Carey from the blog Sentence first drew my attention to this on Twitter; thanks, Stan.
5 comments:
Shill has been in use for a long time, in the sense of a conman's accomplice. The last time I saw one in action was at a dodgy auction when the shill's job was to make the first bid and get the gullible crowd of Croydon chavs excited. It worked, too.
You're welcome, JD. I think 'squelette' is a useful word, though its form suggests (to me) a portmanteau of 'squelchy' and 'omelette'.
'Shill' certainly seems more common across the Atlantic, but I've encountered it quite a bit in both written and spoken contexts.
'Squelette' to me sounds like a diminutive (of 'squel') so I'm not sure it suits large buildings...
Diminutive - or feminine.
Grammarphobia, meanwhile, has a new blog post on the etymology of 'shill'.
I first came across 'shill' on this defunct blog about ugly knitting: You knit what?
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