Anglicisms that dress up precarity: a dictionary

Anglicisms that dress up precarity: a dictionary

The term "staycation" means, in practice, not having enough money to go on holiday in August. The definition doesn't come from an academic dictionary, but from a list built up over time in a forum thread, translating into plain English what Anglo-Saxon marketing presents as a lifestyle. The premise is simple: every anglicism that enters everyday speech works as a coat of varnish over a rougher economic reality. What used to be called staying at home is now a lifestyle choice.

The exercise has its charm, and its method too. It's not about rejecting English out of spite, but about checking what lies behind each term that slips its way in. The result is a reverse dictionary: from the cool word to the uncomfortable fact.

What each anglicism means in economic terms

The list starts with "staycation" and continues with "situationship", which the author translates as a romantic relationship without commitment in which one party expects more from the other. "Coworking" is described as working at a shared table in shifts, with no desk or chair of your own, with the luck of having a small locker with a combination lock. The office, moreover, usually has no walls, hence the usefulness of noise-cancelling headphones.

"Carsharing" is presented as the option for those who can't afford to buy a car. The calculation of what it would cost to buy a new vehicle and maintain it for several years, the text argues, rarely appears itemised in the articles praising the formula. "Freemium" is defined as the model of supposedly free apps that collect personal data so that governments and marketing companies know how to manipulate people.

"Micromobility" is, in this reading, a way of accepting that cars are for the rich: e-scooters and electric bikes presented as eco-friendly, setting aside the environmental damage of extracting materials for batteries and their final shipment to Africa to be burned for their metals. "Circular economy" is questioned with the argument that only a few materials are truly recyclable, and the rest is used to recycle those few.

Coliving, tiny homes and van life: housing as a trend

"Coliving" is described as flatsharing past the age of thirty, a formula that, according to the text, began to be normalised by TV series whose characters couldn't afford to live alone. "Tiny homes" are small houses built on land without planning permission, presented in videos as a life in nature, although the author admits he is still looking for one that lasts more than twenty years. "Van life" is the rung below: living in a van, a situation once associated with social exclusion and now sold as freedom.

"Minimalism" closes the section: throwing away perfectly good things so you can do coliving, van life or buy a tiny home, and buying them again six months later. The list grows with later additions: "freeganism" and "dumpsterdiving" for those who take food from the bin, "trashlunching" for those who fish lunch out of containers with a broom handle, and "stooping" for those who pick up furniture left out on the street. The pattern repeats: what was once necessity is rebranded as a trend.

From "welcome refugees" to "rucking": how the list evolved

The conversation drifted into more controversial territory. One participant translated several terms into what he called "hunger-era Spain": "staycation" as staying at home, "coliving" as an overcrowded slum flat, "tiny homes" as a shack. Another added "welcome refugees" as Stockholm syndrome, a definition this article reports as an attributed opinion, not as fact. Also mentioned was the "ryder", described as an errand-running job with no contract or social security, with the vehicle provided by the worker himself.

In the final part of the list, terms such as "smart", applied to cities, phones or watches, which the text reads as a synonym for control; "running", for those who jog in expensive gear; or "rucking", for those who do their shopping on foot and carry the bags. In short, the list keeps growing because the phenomenon it describes shows no sign of stopping either.

Why anglicisms are adopted to talk about precarity

The hypothesis running through the whole list is that the anglicism works as a layer of neutrality. Saying "staycation" is not the same as saying you can't make ends meet and pay for a few days away. Saying "coworking" is not the same as saying you don't have an office of your own. The imported term turns a lack into a choice, and that is its main function.

Some argue it is a deliberate strategy to get people to accept worse living conditions without protesting. Others simply see a linguistic fad, a way of seeming cosmopolitan. In both cases, the effect is the same: the word covers up the fact. The list, built from contributions and corrections, works as a small reverse dictionary for anyone who wants to know what lies behind each term.

The question remains whether the phenomenon is new or has simply accelerated. What does seem clear is that vocabulary changes faster than the material conditions it describes.