I'm sure you're wondering just how the American Dialect Society selects its Word of the Year. Now, for what I believe is the first time, you can read an inside account and also see video footage.
In other news, I remember two more terms that I thought were worthy of recognition for their service in 2008: post-racist and stimulus package (which I prefer to bailout, which was the Word of the Year 2008).
Source (3:23)
Showing posts with label American Dialect Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Dialect Society. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Word of the Year 2008: The Results are In!
As predicted here, Barack Hussein Obama won Name of the Year from the American Name Society.
But the results of the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year 2008 included some surprises. The Word of the Year 2008 was bailout, with my favorite Barack Obama coming in second, lipstick on a pig third, and change, shovel-ready, and game-changer following in that order.
Barack Obama did better in the Most Useful category (go figure), winning ahead of text(ing), bailout (go figure again), and Palinesque.
Most Creative was recombobulation area (an area at a Milwaukee airport where people who've passed through security can get there stuff together again). Lagging behind were long photo, skadoosh, and rofflenui.
Most Unnecessary was moofing (working "on the go" with laptop and cellphone). Not quite as unnecessary were First Dude (snap!) and bromance.
Most Outrageous was one of my favorites: terrorist fist jab. Less outrageous were body-snarking, fish pedicure, and baby mama.
The amazing choice for Most Euphemistic was scooping technician (a person who scoops poop). That's pretty outrageous to me. Picking up after scooping technician were age-doping (falsifying age-qualifying records at sporting events) and thought showers (a PC substitute for brainstorms).
Most Likely to Succeed was shovel-ready (an infrastructure project that's just waiting for funding). Less likely were Twitter-related tw prefixes, BAT favorite [name] the [job], Phelpsian, and -licious.
The Least Likely to Succeed was PUMA (Party Unity My Ass). But in case the dialecticians have misunderestimated the Democrats, the runners-up are nuke the fridge, and -cation (as in BAT favorite staycation).
Dominating the new category of Election Related Words was maverick/mavericky. Then came poor, under-rated lipstick on a pig as well as the adorable hopey-changey and hockey mom.
And now let the challenges begin!
But the results of the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year 2008 included some surprises. The Word of the Year 2008 was bailout, with my favorite Barack Obama coming in second, lipstick on a pig third, and change, shovel-ready, and game-changer following in that order.
Barack Obama did better in the Most Useful category (go figure), winning ahead of text(ing), bailout (go figure again), and Palinesque.
Most Creative was recombobulation area (an area at a Milwaukee airport where people who've passed through security can get there stuff together again). Lagging behind were long photo, skadoosh, and rofflenui.
Most Unnecessary was moofing (working "on the go" with laptop and cellphone). Not quite as unnecessary were First Dude (snap!) and bromance.
Most Outrageous was one of my favorites: terrorist fist jab. Less outrageous were body-snarking, fish pedicure, and baby mama.
The amazing choice for Most Euphemistic was scooping technician (a person who scoops poop). That's pretty outrageous to me. Picking up after scooping technician were age-doping (falsifying age-qualifying records at sporting events) and thought showers (a PC substitute for brainstorms).
Most Likely to Succeed was shovel-ready (an infrastructure project that's just waiting for funding). Less likely were Twitter-related tw prefixes, BAT favorite [name] the [job], Phelpsian, and -licious.
The Least Likely to Succeed was PUMA (Party Unity My Ass). But in case the dialecticians have misunderestimated the Democrats, the runners-up are nuke the fridge, and -cation (as in BAT favorite staycation).
Dominating the new category of Election Related Words was maverick/mavericky. Then came poor, under-rated lipstick on a pig as well as the adorable hopey-changey and hockey mom.
And now let the challenges begin!
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Word of the Year 2008: The Experts Weigh In
Looking over WOTY 2008 nominations from select members of the American Dialect Society, I'm surprised by how many of the words are, to me, not that new and not remarkably resurgent, either. Examples from Grant Barrett, Wayne Glowka, Ben Zimmer, and David Barnhart:
absentee-voteBut here are my likes from those lists:
bailout
Bradley effect
change
czar
game-changer
-gate (suffix)
hockey mom
market meltdown
maverick
Oprah effect
plutoid
recession
superdelegate
unemployment
vet
Caribou Barbie
Greyjing
nuke the fridge
post-racial (if only!)
quake lake
silent tsunami
staycation
TARP
terrorist fist-jab
201(k)
wrap rage
Friday, January 02, 2009
Word of the Year 2008: Name of the Year
The American Dialect Society (ADS) and American Name Society (ANS) plan to anoint the Words of the Year 2008 (WOTY 2008) in about a week.
So what will the Name of the Year be? C'mon, you know as well as I. Barack Hussein Obama can be expected to take the prize, perhaps dominating the competition even more than Pluto in 2006.
Yeah, for a while I thought Joe [the Plumber] might have a shot, and I think I came up with some other clever angle, but I was only kidding myself. After George, Bill, George, Ronald, Jimmy, and their ilk, Barack Hussein Obama is a truly revolutionary name for these troubled times.
So what will the Name of the Year be? C'mon, you know as well as I. Barack Hussein Obama can be expected to take the prize, perhaps dominating the competition even more than Pluto in 2006.
Yeah, for a while I thought Joe [the Plumber] might have a shot, and I think I came up with some other clever angle, but I was only kidding myself. After George, Bill, George, Ronald, Jimmy, and their ilk, Barack Hussein Obama is a truly revolutionary name for these troubled times.
Friday, January 04, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
WORD OF THE YEAR 2007: NOMINATIONS
Here are three sets of nominations from members of the American Dialect Society for Word of the Year 2007, to be determined tomorrow. You can get more details by following the links.
From David Barnhart:
As for my own nominations, I'm adding
Here are three sets of nominations from members of the American Dialect Society for Word of the Year 2007, to be determined tomorrow. You can get more details by following the links.
From David Barnhart:
by-stander effectFrom Grant Barrett:
breeder document
CFL
chipmunking
congestion fee
cringe reading
crowd sourcing
cut and walk
dwell time
e-mailitis
evo-devo
format-agnostic
geofencing
Green Monday
Green Tuesday
mash-up
MRSA
no-e-mail Friday
no-match letter
Oprah effect
parkour
quorum sensing
Waldo (play Waldo or place where's Waldo)
Zumba
astronaut diaperFrom Wayne Glowka:
atmospherics
bacn
bitch
boot camp flu
boom (left of boom and right of boom)
chief sustainability officer
colony collapse disorder
crowdsource
drama-price
draw-down
email bankruptcy
earmarxist
exaflood
exploding ARM
forever stamp
FTW
global weirding
gorno
guap
-hawk
ho
hooter-hider
hypermile
hyphenate
I-reporter
islamofascism
jailbreak
kinnear
liar's loan/liar loan
life-stream
lip dub
lolcat
lopomo
make it rain
maternal profiling
meat tag
mobisode
mom job (mommy makeover)
multi-dad
nappy-headed ho
Navy shower
nigger, death of
NINJA
nose bidet
pap
pecha-kucha
phonemarking
post-kinetic environment
rape stand
rick-roll
scratch and dent loan
side boob
smeet
show-runner
Super-Duper Tuesday
splurge (for troop surge)
subprime
Tivoization
toe-tapper
truther
Tsunami Tuesday
tumblelog
va-j-j/va-jay-jay/vajayjay
vegansexual
walkshed
waterboarding
wide stance, to have a
windshield cowboy
The Big Rip
Bom Chicka Wah Wah
celbutard
connectile disfunction
cornhole
Don't tase me, bro!
fenjoozler
flying Lincoln bedroom
General Betray Us
Global Warming
Googlegänger
Happy Kwanhanamas!
Hill-Bill
human terrain team
nappy headed ho's
nurdle
roboho
strand-in
squirt
Sushi
Truther
two-car insurance seminar
As for my own nominations, I'm adding
cagingto my list:
shopdropping
belief tank
botnet
chemo brain
efforting
favorited
glutened
Juneuary
mumblecore/mumblecorps
permalancer
PowerPoint Ranger
rehab
school shooter
shipper
-tard
vajayjay
yoga stick
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