Hype and Hypermiling: Oxford's 2008 Word of the Year
I'm afraid that the season of dubious annual honors is again upon us, and blogs will soon be clogged with top-ten lists of the best and worst of the year--movies, celebrities, campaign gaffes, financial bailout schemes, and--who knows--maybe imported contaminated food items.
Exercises in silliness? Of course. Marketing schemes intended to stir up heated, meaningless debates? Definitely. Far too trivial for us to pay any attention to? Well, sure--that is, unless they have something to do with the English language.
So I feel compelled to pass along the news that on Monday the editors of The New Oxford American Dictionary announced--without a hint of embarrassment--that Oxford's 2008 Word of the Year is . . . hypermiling:
“Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.As my third-grade teacher liked to say, "Use this new word three times in a sentence, and make it your own."
Or you might want to dip into Oxford's list of runners-up and pick another coinage:
- moofer: a mobile out-of-office worker--i.e., someone who works away from a fixed workplace, via Blackberry/laptop/wi-fi etc. (also verbal noun, moofing)
- frugalista: a person who leads a frugal lifestyle, but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc.
- topless meeting: a meeting in which the participants are barred from using their laptops, Blackberries, cellphones, etc.
- staycation: vacation taken at or near one’s home, taking day trips, etc.
- tweet: a short message sent via the Twitter service, using a cellphone or other mobile device.
- wardrobe has become a verb, as in: Ms. Mendes has a long-standing relationship with the house of Calvin Klein and has been wardrobed by Calvin Klein Collection.
As for that last one, call me old-fashioned, but I don't intend to wardrobe anybody any time soon.
Update: Bailout: Merriam-Webster's Metaphorical Word of the Year
More Words About Words:
- Which "Webster's Dictionary" Is the Real Thing?
- The 100 Most Frequently Used Words in English
- The 200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words
Image: The New Oxford American Dictionary , second edition, 2005
Comments
If Oxford is in England, then:
1. Why would their top word of the year involve a measurement that they do not use? Don’t they use metric measurements? Correct me if I’m wrong but then, a related question is why there would be an Oxford New American English Dictionary. Hello? Aren’t there any publishers/scholarly bodies or individuals (Webster?) writing dictionaries in America anymore? And do they actually say “This is a topless meeting?” Most people I know would at least raise an eyebrow at such a statement. As far as I’ve always known, “topless” was an adjective but generally referred to either a container without a lid (top) or a bar/dance/restaurant etc. where (typically, but not always) waiters or patrons wore no shirts, or in the case of women, shirts, blouses, sweaters, or dresses that had shirt or blouse-like tops. I mean, really, I guess it’s a matter of context but I do think this is getting a bit out of control.
Laura
Hello. British road signs are in miles, not kilometers. Oxford University Press USA has been publishing dictionaries and many other books in the United States since 1897. Yes, there are several other publishers of dictionaries in the U.S.; many of those dictionaries bear the name of Webster. And according to “Going Topless to Office Meetings,” an article by Laura Marquez at the ABC News website (March 31, 2008), “In the country’s high-tech capital, Silicon Valley has gone topless–a phrase coined by Web designer Dan Saffer.”
Thanks so much for the info about these new words. Too Shy to Stop writer Isabel Adams just did an article for our magazine about hypermiling. You can read the full article here.
Ok, so I’m a moofer, but even though I don’t go into an office, I can’t let appearances down, so call I’m going to wardrobe well but cheaply and then be known as a frugalista. However, I guess that when I go to a topless (yechhhhh….) meeting, I wont’ be able to tweet about the stacation I’m planning.
Oh, Laura, don’t be such a serious stuffed shirt. Do we not already get enough bad news and horror from the use of words? Can’t we have some fun with them for a change? Maybe going to a topless meeting would pull your little upturned nose from that monitor & let you get a little loose with unplugged humankind for a bit.