British Airways compiles its own dictionary of aviation wit

British Airways has rather brilliantly decided that a single word of the year simply will not do. Instead, the carrier has crafted its own lexicon of five newly minted terms, each one capturing the particular spirit and absurdities of modern aviation with considerable wit.

Brand ter tops the collection: that delicious phenomenon when friendly World Cup rivalry between two airline social teams and one very public bet creates the sort of brand banter everyone wants to follow. It speaks to the theatre of corporate humour, the moment when airlines drop their corporate composure and simply have fun with one another. The term emerged from British Airways’s playful exchanges with Norwegian, a relationship that has become something of a ritual in aviation circles.

Plane splaining arrives next, a verb for when someone gets the aircraft wrong in the comments and an aviation enthusiast simply cannot let it fly. Anyone who has scrolled through online discussion of aircraft will recognise this impulse instantly: the compulsion to correct, to educate, to ensure that a Boeing is never mistaken for an Airbus. It is gentle pedantry at its finest, the sort of thing that bonds devotees of flight together.

The ATE-380 retrofit joins the dictionary as well, referencing British Airways’s modernisation of its long haul fleet. These five new words represent the airline’s affection for its own world, the language that crew and passengers and aviation enthusiasts share when they gather to discuss the business of flight.

The collection arrives with considerable charm, capturing not just technical reality but the culture and camaraderie that surrounds it. British Airways has recognised that language evolves in communities, and aviation has always had its own dialect. Now it simply has an official record of it.

Imagery courtesy of British Airways (@british_airways).