You’re wearing what?!

New words created by melding together bits of existing words (like vlog from video blog) can be quite fun, but also quite descriptive. One that’s entered the Open Dictionary this week is pleather, meaning artificial leather. Of course, it’s formed by combining the words plastic and leather, but it seems to me somehow deliciously suitable, though I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it’s because it immediately makes me think of ‘lather‘ (as in get yourself in a state about something) and I can imagine a bunch of girls heading out on the town getting into a lather because they can’t get their pleather trousers to look right (or, indeed, the idea of them going out and getting leathered – slang for drunk). Either way, it’s a good one!