Individual Voluntary Arrangement - English Dictionary

Collins English Dictionaries have acknowledged the extent to which the credit crunch and debt has affected our language by including some new phrases in its latest editions.

UK Insolvency Helpline, the national free debt advisory service reported being surprised that these terms have found place in the dictionary so soon. "the terms are not yet fully udnerstood and yet they're already formalised and written in stone"

Collins English Dictionaries have acknowledged the extent to which the credit crunch and debt has affected our language by including some new phrases in its latest editions.  Some incredible stories of financial mismanagement due to the credit crisis or credit crunch have been reported on many debt advice news websites.  ‘Credit crunch’, ’sub-prime’ and ‘downturn’ entered the pages of the dictionaries last year and this year it is the turn of ’staycation’, ‘brickor mortis’ and ‘recessionista’.  If you haven’t heard these buzz phrases bandied about near the water coolers at work, at bus queues or in pubs then it could be time to invest in a dictionary to find out their meanings. ‘Staycation’ refers to "a holiday spent at home especially due to straitened financial circumstances".  ‘Brickor mortis’ is "a period of difficult times in the housing industry" while ‘recessionista’ is "a person whose clothes, whether cheap, second-hand or subtly subdued, are considered appropriate to an economic downturn".  Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins English Dictionaries, explained: "Abstruse terms that once would have been limited to the financial pages have started to move into the mainstream, as people want to read and talk about how the whole mess has come about."  Arming yourself with knowledge about financial terms can help people understand how their debt problems came about and help them tackle them.  Individual Voluntary Arrangements are in place for anyone in teh UK who is suffering from the effects of the credit crisis and needs to clean their debt levels and build towards a fresher future.