Definitions
Etymologies
- From the phrase "It's more than my job's worth to ..." (Wiktionary)
Examples
“It's why the word "jobsworth" is unique to Britain.”
“Unfortunately the "jobsworth" I asked was insistent that I should join the back of a long queue of the general public, standing outside in the pouring rain, waiting for the security clearance I knew I already had if I could only find my pass.”
“Because of the "jobsworth" attitude of many of the civil servants & various EU type regulations, I ended up doing about 2 months worth of REAL work that I could have done in a non govermental company!”
“Rather than providing information, transparency and honesty, the face of BA was shouting at customers with a 'jobsworth' attitude.”
“' UK plc must distance itself from the 'jobsworth' approach and those instances where health and safety is used as a convenient excuse for not doing something. '”
Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news
“I'd wondered, a bit, why some of them had such 'jobsworth' attitudes to passengers - I'd imagined it was just being tired from long-haul flights, but it sounds as if it's more the nature of the beast.”
Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph
“It also included a "jobsworth" award for overzealous officials.”
“jobsworth' Council Officers are not enthusiastic about sorting out illegal travellers 'sites that are dotted around the neighbourhood.”
“Another despicable British "jobsworth" (rigid and petty rule-follower): "A coach driver refused to let a woman get off his vehicle near her home - even though she was desperate to get to her dying mum's hospital bedside.”
“The latter was described as being "hampered by delays, communication failures, tactical confusion and a jobsworth adherence to protocol that at times defied common sense".”
The Guardian: Communication underscores London's emergency planning
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘jobsworth’.
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 2465 more... -
bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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miscellanea
antimacassar, snootful, sessile, glagolitic, marrowsky, farrago, keel, calumny, rheum, talisman, tally, awry and 508 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for jobsworth.
bilby The context of this is that both these names are famous footballers, Beckenbauer a World Cup winner with Germany in 1974 and Ibrahimovic the current captain of Sweden and AC Milan.
"A Brazilian man named Franz Beckenbauer has registered the birth of his son Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic Lima da Silva was born in Recife, Pernambuco.
His father, Franz Beckenbauer, claims he experienced some problems at the registry office, with a jobsworth not sure about the given name ‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic’.
He explained: 'The woman said she had to send to the judge to approve. I objected… If my name was Beckenbauer, why it could not be Ibrahimovic?'”
- Rob Parker, 'Franz Beckenbauer welcomes his son Zlatan Ibrahimovic into the world', offthepost.info, 25 June 2012. Jun 25, 2012
uselessness I'm rather surprised this has nothing to do with His Steveness. Dec 19, 2007
sionnach A person, usually a security guard, park keeper or a parking attendant who says "Its more than my job’s worth" when enforcing some petty regulation.
The BBC was famous for a particular breed of jobsworth. One of these is supposed to have been on duty at Broadcasting House when King Haakon of Norway appeared at the Security Desk, gave the jobsworth his name and told him that he was due to participate in a programme in studio 6. The jobsworth went to ring the studio. A moment later he put his hand over the phone and called out,"Excuse me, Sir, where was it you said you was King of?"
Dec 19, 2007