“Giallo”, “Tarantinoesque”, “scream queen” – not the pitch for a new horror film, but some of the film-related words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in its latest update.
Craig Leyland, senior editor of the OED, said that there were more than 100 additions to the dictionary’s stock of cinematic words and phrases. Some, such as “Altmanesque”, “Kubrickian” and “Lynchian”, draw directly on the names of high-profile directors to refer to the sensibility evoked by their work. Others, such as “J-horror”, ‘“mumblecore” and “Nollywood” are coinages used to describe specific types of film. A number of technical terms have also been added, including “diegetic”, referring to sound that occurs within the world of the story; “visual effect”, meaning the kind of image element added digitally in post-production; and “Academy ratio”, the old-style 1.37:1 film projection format that closely resembles a standard TV screen.
Leyland also draws attention to phrases that were originally quotations but have become well-used everyday shorthand. “Not in Kansas anymore”, from The Wizard of Oz, has been in common use since the early 1970s and is defined as “in a strange or unfamiliar place or situation”; while “(up) to 11”, the famous gag about the loudspeaker dial from This Is Spinal Tap, means “so as to reach or surpass the maximum level or limit; to an extreme or intense degree”.
The Observer’s chief film critic, Mark Kermode, acted as consultant to the OED.
