Omni-shambles!

Prefixes and suffixes: Omnishambles

I heard a new word this week: omni-shambles! What a great word! Here it is in context:

Cameron slammed over ‘omni-shambles’ Budget

Well, you might know the word ‘shambles‘  – but then again you might not because it is not that formal. A shambles is a mess, or confusion resulting from bad planning (here for the definition from Cambridge). ‘Omni’ – well, that’s a prefix meaning ‘all’ or ‘every’. So I was delighted to hear the new word omni-shambles to describe the chaos and confusion that the British Government has found itself in after its annual Budget. (I’m not being political – it’s just a great word to describe total and utter chaos!) It’s a brand new word which has been made using a prefix. How well do you know your prefixes and suffixes? If you are good at them then you will be able to build the words you need. Prefixes and suffixes are particularly well used in academic vocabulary. Here’s a link to one of my favourite Academic English websites from Andy Gillett: read about prefixes and suffixes from his UEFAP website site here.