The first few entries for a proposed dictionary of journalism slang have arrived at the office of Newcastle Journal writer Graeme Whitfield.

His target is to pinpoint as many examples of “journalese” as possible – words that we read in the newspapers but hardly ever find in real life.

According to his latest blog update, among the examples of this special language spoken only by journalists are

* "hailed" - as in, "A city's car-free day has been hailed a success" - do you think anyone at the event actually said: "I hail this car-free day a success!"?

* "revellers" - a fantastic journalese word once you've already used "drinkers" to describe people in pubs (yet you never hear real people say "Blimey - there's lots of revellers in here. Maybe we should go somewhere more quiet.")

* "probe" - to the shame of some journalists, this has come to mean an investigation that involves either leaving the office or involves more than three phone calls.

* "lambast" - as suggested by the editor of a top Scottish newspaper I happen to know. "That's a terrible decision, I'm really going to lambast it" - as people never say.

* "swingeing" - always used in harness with the word "cuts". Journalists seem to think that it is better than just saying "large".

Graeme is still looking for more contributions as he prepares the slim volume.

Readers can follow Graeme's progress and send in their own experiences of 'journalese' via Journallive.

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