BREAKING: SUBPRIME IS WORD OF THE YEAR 2007!

Betray Us Takes Name of the Year 2007

Step aside, plutoed! It's time for subprime to take over the spotlight as Word of the Year 2007!

"Subprime is an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage, or investment. Subprime was also winner of a brand-new 2007 category for real estate words, a category which reflects the preoccupation of the press and public for the past year with a deepening mortgage crisis," says a statement at the American Dialect Society (ADS) website.

The ADS press release (PDF) sheds light on some of the intricacies behind the selection of subprime. I have qualms about a number of the picks—mainly because a bunch just seem so old and established that they seem more worthy of Lifetime Achievement Awards—but who am I to argue with card-carrying members of the ADS?

Possibly in recognition of the gross mismanagement that has prevailed in the real estate industry under the Bush administration, this was the first year that the ADS dedicated a category to Real Estate/Mortgage/Loan Words. In that category, NINJA had a strong showing with 34 votes compared to exploding ARM (10 votes), scratch and dent loan (2 votes) and liar's loan/liar loan (1 vote). But 2007 turned out to be the year for veteran word subprime, which received 65 votes.

Another old-timer, green-, made a strong showing in other categories. It mopped up Most Likely To Succeed, winning 70 votes. Left in the sudbucket were locavore (13), wide stance, to have a (13), texter (5), global weirding (3), and Super-Duper Tuesday/Tsunami Tuesday (1).

Nominee green- also prevailed in Most Useful. In the initial vote, green- garnered 43 votes and wrap rage got 39, followed by bacn (14), celebu- (13), and connectile dysfunction (5). Then green- edged out wrap rage in the run-off, 59-55.

Under Most Creative, lovable lolcat racked up 20 votes, but Googlegänger scared it off with 84. Way behind were tapafication (4) and boom (1).

Blog About Town thought va-j-j/va-jay-jay/vajayjay was a real contender for Most Euphemistic, but it only received 30 votes—enough to crush shmashmortion/shmushmortion (8) but not enough to steal the thunder from human terrain team (60).

Another stunner in this corner of the blogosphere was the winner of Most Outrageous. BAT favorite nappy-headed ho garnered 27 votes, but the tame toe-tapper took the trophy with a stunning 70 votes, while make it rain dribbled in with a mere 2.

One might think that a tested word such as green- would be a formidable foe in the Word of the Year round, but the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of subprime (79). Trailing far back were Facebook (11), green- (9), Googlegänger (7), wide stance, to have a (2), waterboarding (1), and surge (1).

In the category of Most Unnecessary, Happy Kwanhanamas! won with 63 over vegansexual (35) and truther (5).

And, in the intense battle for Least Likely to Succeed, quadriboobage (40) made a strong initial showing against earmarxist (32) and strand-in (31), which ultimately received the dubious honor with 74 votes over quadriboobage (19) and earmarxist (2). Knocked out of play in the first round was Billary/Hill-Bill (1), suggesting that the ADS doesn't place too much stock in Iowa caucus results.

And, as noted in the header, the American Name Society named Betray Us as its Name of the Year 2007.

Previous coverage here.