Ben Schott

Every year, new words take off and old ones die. Some are preposterous. Some actually make sense. We walk through some of the big ones of 2014 with the Jargonator's Ben Schott.

Ben Schott explains the German language and discusses his book Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition, a dictionary of newly coined words that explore the idiosyncrasies of life as only the German language can. German allows you to construct specific words for a secret love of bad foods, the inability to remember jokes, Sunday-afternoon depression, the urge to yawn, the glee of gossip, reassuring your hairdresser, delight at the changing of the seasons, the urge to hoard, or the ineffable pleasure of a cold pillow.