Munted

Munted has been around for 20 years or more but was popularised after a massive earthquake struck Christchurch in Feb 2011.  The city's mayor at the time, Bob Parker, is now widely credited as the word's creator after telling television reporters: "Our main sewer trunk is seriously munted.  I believe that is the technical term."  Understatement of the year!

You'd refer to something as munted if you believed it was broken, destroyed or faulty and you didn't want to drop an f-bomb inappropriately.

The earthquake was R6.3 and the epicentre was shallow and directly under Christchurch on a fault that nobody knew existed prior to that point.  It was so strong that I felt it 450km (280 miles) away.  It was a very sad day for NZ as Christchurch was our second largest city, the largest on the South Island.  Nearly 200 people were killed.  This photo shows the dust from collapsed buildings rising from the city just moments after the quake struck.