Language lessons

WE at the Olive Press have a predilection for new words. Every time new lingo enters the lexicon we hurriedly make a note for future use.
An interesting programme on the BBC World Service recently highlighted some of the words that entered the English language in 2007.
Among them were gems such as to Facebook – to add a friend to your account on last year’s most popular website.
However, our favourite has to be to Wyatt. Named after singer Robert, this verb means to enter a public house and to choose the most unapt song from that establishment’s jukebox. Think goose stepping into a bierkeller in 1936 Berlin and asking the fat accordionist to stop his wheezy rendition of the Valkyrie and to belt out a Pizmonin instead.
We were in raptures earlier this week to see newspaper El Pais has got in on the act. On its front page was an alarming piece about the beautiful region of Galicia falling victim to rampant construction.
However, what caught the eye most was a new word: marbellizarse, an intransitive verb named after that resort of fake tans, false smiles and real fur coats. Meaning to become like Marbella, it is used when a municipality, lured by the constructor’s dollar, commits suicide by drowning itself in brick and glass.
One of the joys of adding a new word to your vocabulary is rolling it around your tongue, trying it out in sentences to see how it works. Let’s try it with marbellizarse.
Un monton de cuidades de España se ha marbellizado (a lot of towns and cities in Spain have become like Marbella). Para marbellizarse, un ayuntamiento tiene que perder su alma (to become like Marbella, a council has to lose its soul).
Office favourite follows: La mayoria de los cuidades quiere marbellizarse menos Marbella, que quiere demarbellizarse. This roughly translates to: The majority of towns and cities want to make a quick buck no matter the costs except Marbella, which is desperately trying to shed its reputation as a hotbed of corruption and illegal builds.
Yes, it is true. It is not only in Córdoba and Granada where the wrecking balls have started to swing but that Costa del Sol resort, too.
Since the town hall was dissolved by central government and replaced with a team of administrators, a great clean-up effort has been underway and all the corrupt cobwebs swept into court.
The many illegal builds have faced – or will soon face – demolition. But it is not just the great unwashed who stand to lose beloved homes. Hollywood star Antonio Banderas’ palatial beachfront villa could soon be reduced to rubble.
Former mayor Jesus Gil y Gil will be turning in his grave.