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All in a name No 4022

Published 10 April 2008

We asked you for new words (plus their definitions) that have entered the English language and are based on people's names

Superb. And a bumper postbag. A tenner each to the two doubletons. The rest can have a £5 book token each. The Tesco vouchers go to Keith Norman, top dog this week.

Bernanke n emergency rescue of a bank (That's five bernankes we've managed so far this month)

Silverman n someone who has become wealthy from literary competitions

John O'Byrne

Forsyth n a landmark of such antiquity that the planners don't dare touch it (It's an eyesore and a health hazard, but to the locals it's a much-loved forsyth)

Cowell v to use excessive firepower against the easiest of targets, to attack with disproportionate force (He cowelled the pensioner into handing over her purse)

Keith Norman

Rowan n a verbal "clarification" that leaves us more perplexed than before

Barbara Smoker

Fayed n an inappropriately completed passport application form

J Seery

Murdoch n powerful all-devouring god. See Moloch (var)

G M Davis

Ming v to go beyond your sell-by date

Harry Glenister

Sewell v to speak with excessive clarity of diction

Sid Field

Sarkozy n a midlife crisis

Liam Kenson

Burrell v to remove something from one's employer

Nicholas Hodgson

Rowling adj colloq extremely wealthy (She's rowling, innit?)

David Silverman

Winehouse n hairdo completed while under the influence

Bill Greenwell

Bragg n dial sturdy outcrop of rock in the middle of a great wen (Cumbria)

Adrian Fry

Clarkson n huge male following (How big is your clarkson?)

Josh Ekroy

Henman v to fail again - and fail better

Tony Challis

Prescott n a collection of unrelated words

Michael Sanderson

No 4025 A private affair

Set by Leonora Casement

Campaigning in north London following revelations that he had fathered five children with three different women, Ken Livingstone said: "Voters are not interested in who I slept with 30 years ago . . . it's only the media that is interested in my private life. Most people want to talk about transport and crime and other issues that matter to them. I have never discussed my private life and I am not going to discuss it now." We want a journalist's interview with Livingstone, ostensibly about serious matters such as crime and transport and "other issues", but which aims surreptitiously to get at the truth about his private life.

Email: comp@newstatesman.co.uk

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