Word of the year

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The Word of the year is the most important word or expression in public discussion, nominated in a number of countries: United States, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Liechtenstein.[citation needed]

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[edit] United States

Since 1991, the American Dialect Society has designated one or more words or terms to be the word of the year. This year was the 18th time ADS members have voted to choose it, though the society says its vote is for fun only and that they do not act in any official capacity of introducing words into the English language. They include:

Note: The ADS will choose its word of the year 2008 in January 2009.

In addition, the ADS has selected web as the Word of the 1990s Decade, jazz as the Word of the Twentieth Century, and she as the Word of the Past Millennium.

"Subprime" was a popular choice for the 2007 word of the year and received over two-thirds of the votes cast. Other contenders were:

  • green- - "designates environmental concern, as in greenwashing"
  • surge - "an increase in troops in a war zone"
  • Facebook - all parts of speech
  • waterboarding - "an interrogation technique in which the subject is immobilized and doused with water to simulate drowning"
  • Googlegänger - "a person with your name who shows up when you google yourself"
  • wide stance, to have a - "To be hypocritical or to express two conflicting points of view" (in reference to Senator Larry Craig)

"Plutoed" beat "climate canary" in a run-off vote for the 2006 word of the year. A "climate canary" is something whose poor health indicates a looming environmental catastrophe.

"It was good that the society focused on a genuine scientific concern, though I believe the nomination came in from outer space," said committee chairman Professor Wayne Glowka.

Other words in the running for 2006 were:

  • flog - "an advertisement disguised as a blog or web log"
  • prohibited liquids - "fluids that cannot be transported by passengers on airplanes"
  • macaca - "an American citizen treated as an alien"

The society also selects words in other categories that vary from year to year, such as most original, most unnecessary, most outrageous, and most likely to succeed.

[edit] Germany

In Germany, the Wort des Jahres has been selected since 1972 (i.e., for the year of 1971 and up) by the Society of the German Language.

In addition, since 1991, the Unwort des Jahres (Unword of the Year or No-no Word of the Year) has been nominated since 1991, the word in the public speech which is deemed inappropriate and an insult to human dignity. See "Überfremdung" for an example.

[edit] Similar endeavors

[edit] A Word a Year

Since 2004, Susie Dent, an English lexicographer publishes a column, "A Word a Year", in which she chooses a single word from each of the last 101 years to represent preoccupations of the time. Susie Dent admits that the list is subjective.[1][2][3] Each year she gives a completely different set of words.

Since Susie Dent is with the Oxford University Press, her words of choice are often incorrectly referred to as "Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year".

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • John Ayto, "A Century of New Words", Series: Oxford Paperback Reference (2007) ISBN 0-19-921369-0
  • John Ayto, "Twentieth Century Words

[edit] References

  1. ^ A Word a Year: 1906-2006
  2. ^ A Word a Year: 1905-2005
  3. ^ A Word a Year: 1904-2004

[edit] External links