WORD OF THE YEAR 2006: THE FIRST CUT! Last night the American Dialect Society narrowed down the finalists for Word of the Year 2006.

As you can see, Pluto might be too small to be a planet, but it's still big enough to warrant a new category of its own.

The Most Outrageous category also serves an important role: It's a secure repository for firecrotch, macaca, tramp stamp (closely related to 2005's Most Creative whale tail), Cambodian accessories (Angelina Jolie's adopted children), and the problematic sudden jihad syndrome. In that grouping, my guess is that firecrotch and tramp stamp will fall out of the running, but I have no clue as which of the remaining three nominees will prevail.

Most Likely To Succeed? I have a sad feeling carbon has earned that prize.

Go to the American Dialect Society website for complete definitions.

MOST USEFUL
climate canary
data Valdez
flog (fake blog)
sharrow

MOST CREATIVE
Fed-Ex (nickname for Kevin Federline)
julie (organize an event a la Julie McCoy of The Love Boat)
lactard
snowclone

MOST UNNECESSARY
the decider
Fox lips
SuriKat

MOST OUTRAGEOUS
Cambodian accessories
firecrotch
macaca
tramp stamp
sudden jihad syndrome

MOST EUPHEMISTIC
lancing (forced outing of a closeted gay celeb)
lyric malfunction
surge (increase in troop strength)
waterboarding

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
carbon
the decider
macaca moment
m-, man-, men- (as "man-fixes" in compounds and blends such as "manboobs")

LEAST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
grup
pwn
stay the course

NEW CATEGORY: PLUTO-RELATED WORDS
dwarf planet
planemo
plutoed
pluton/plutonoid

ADDENDUM Previous coverage here