FASHION Magazine

Word: Millennial

Meaning: A one-size-fits-all tag for the generation of “kids” born in the ’80s, early ’90s.

Usage: “The millennial generation might just be the most talked-about generation around.” — David Burstein, in the New York Times

Jay-Z’s not getting much love today, after his clothing line Rocawear came out with a T-shirt using the ubiquitous Occupy Wall Street slogan for another message: Occupy All Streets. While the message of the T-shirt is similar to the original—and we’re thinking that he had good intentions in wanting to give the Occupy movement more attention—the T-shirt is rubbing people the wrong way.

Rocawear using OWS, a worldwide protest with many supporters and even more onlookers, is not necessarily the issue—and we’re not totally surprised that Jay (the businessman that he is) would try to profit from the protests. But the company has no plans to give any of the money made from the T-shirt to support the movement that it’s riffing. No matter what his intentions were, pocketing the profits without giving back is a controversial decision for the brand to make.

Word: Obscurant

Meaning: As an adjective, it can mean a few things, including simply something (like smoke, or clouds) that obscures something else. As a noun, more importantly, it means an opposer of intellectual progress, political reform and/or enlightenment.

Usage: “The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding, but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Word: Progressive

Meaning: Well, that’s the problem. Progressive, in a political sense, is associated with leftism, secularism, modernization, even radicalism, but when both conservatives and liberals use it, few know quite what it means.

Usage: “The very nature of the word progressive suggests that the fight for justice and equality is never-ending.” — from an early blog post on Occupy Wall Street

Word: Désamour

Meaning: Unlove, although that’s not an English word; maybe disenchantment, then.

Usage: “S’il n’est pas sûr, malgré le dicton, que l’esprit vienne aux filles avec l’amour, il semble s’aiguiser dans le désamour.” — Hervé Bazin in Madame Ex.

Word: Coup

Meaning: a takeover; the usurping of ruling powers.

Usage: “I feel sure that coups d’état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything” — Edmond and Jules de Goncourt