Oil spill

To call the release of millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean from a drilling rig or tanker a ‘spill’ — like a coffee spill — is to plead that it was merely an inconvenient accident. Questions of responsibility are quietly swept under the carpet. Some prefer the term ‘oil disaster’.

Related Episode

The Unspeak Dictionary exposes the meaning and historical context behind familiar Unspeak terms while crowdsourcing new terms into a collective database.

Select a term on the left to show its definition, reference links, and alternative definitions

Suggest a new Unspeak term, add an alternate definition or a new reference link

Vote on the best alternative definitions.

Discover related terms in the episode.

Explore various data visualizations that reflect the real-world usage of the selected term

Watch related episode