Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Word of the Year

Did you know the powers that be at the American Dialect Society vote on a Word of the Year (WOTY)? How did I miss this? Some of them are pretty good! Take 2006, for instance. Plutoed is the WOTY (demoted or devalued, as happened to the former planet Pluto). Loads of people are getting plutoed due to our economy! WOTY for 1990 was bushlips (insincere political rhetoric.)

Can you believe the WOTY in 1996 was mom? What's up with that? No one ever hear the word before this? There's no surprise with 1999's WOTY: Y2K (didn't you just want to scream by the end of of 1999 if you heard that word one more time?!) It's also no surprise that 2008's WOTY was bailout.

Some words in the past that didn't make the cut: Blook (a blog turned into a book); Ego Surfing (searching the web for your own name); Happy Kwanhanamas! (Kwanzaa + Hanukkah + Christmas); whale tail (the appearance of thong or g-string underwear above the waistband of pants, shorts, or a skirt); muffin top (the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-rider jeans); partner reduction (divorce).....just to name a few.

Looks like we'll be waiting to find out what 2009's WOTY till early next year. I don't think they take nominations for WOTY till December so we all have some time to come up with something. However, the American Dialect Society is currently taking suggestions for their Word of the Decade (2000-2009). If interested, you can read all about that here.

No comments: