As we recently reported, the editors of The New Oxford American Dictionary ushered in the season of dubious annual honors by selecting unfriend as their word of the year. But of course that's not the last word on the matter. The shenanigans continue.
- Webster's New World Word of the Year: Distracted Driving
Beating out such trendy contenders as cloud computing, wallet biopsy, wrap rage, stimulus, and too big to fail, the phrase distracted driving ("what many are guilty of when they use digital devices on the go") was described by the editors of Webster's New World College Dictionary as a "linguistic catch":As with drunk driving, it is not the driving that is drunk or distracted, but rather the driver. The target of the modifier distracted has been changed. Called hypallage, this twist is frequently seen in poetry, but as terms like restless night, juvenile detention center, and careless remark attest, such semantic inversion is not limited to the heights of language use.
In making their choice, the editors were clearly more interested in the word's "intrinsic linguistic attributes" than in its popularity. In case you've forgotten, past winners include overshare (2008), grass station (2007), Crackberry (2006), and infosnacking (2005)--words that are highly unlikely to appear on the SAT. - Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year: Admonish
Unlike their whimsical colleagues at Webster's New World, the editors of Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary are serious number crunchers. According to editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski, his crew of bean counters base their decision on "the highest intensity of searches over the shortest period of time":Admonish shot to the top of the list three days after Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during a speech made by President Obama, and it remained among our top lookups for weeks. When the House announced plans to "admonish" Rep. Wilson, the word was understood to be technical or official, and it has been repeated often in coverage of recent contentious political issues. While this particular story wasn't very important in the context of a year's worth of news, it triggered enormous interest in this word.
The runners-up, offered without explanation, are emaciated, empathy, furlough, inaugurate, nugatory, pandemic, philanderer, repose, and rogue. Ah yes--nugatory indeed. - Lake Superior State University's 2009 List of Banished Words: Going Green, Bailout, and Iconic
Lake Superior State University begins each year with a list of worn-out, misused, unnecessary, and generally annoying words and expressions. Words "banished" at the start of 2009 included green (along with all its ecological variations), maverick, bailout, iconic, and staycation.
Unfortunately, the sorely abused adjective iconic has refused to go away. It shows up on Entertainment Tonight every time a celebrity of any rank kicks the bucket, shuffles off this mortal coil, runs down the curtain, and joins the bleedin' choir invisible (to paraphrase the not-yet-iconic John Cleese). Children must think that iconic is simply a euphemism for dead.To submit words that you'd like to see on the 2010 list of Banished Words, visit this web page at Lake Superior State University.
- The American Dialect Society: Now Accepting Nominations
Our favorite lexical competition is the one that's been conducted by the American Dialect Society for the past 20 years--the "longest-running such vote anywhere" and "the only one not tied to commercial interests." And because winning words aren't announced until the group's meeting in January, you still have a chance to nominate your favorites:What is the word or phrase which best characterizes the year or the decade? What expression most reflects the ideas, events, and themes which have occupied the English-speaking world, especially North America?
In 2008, the society's top choice was bailout--which also happened to be Merriam-Webster's highest vote-getter. This year, I trust, we can do better.
Nominations should be sent to woty@americandialect.org. They can also be made in Twitter by using the hashtag #woty09. . . .
Sub-categories for "word of the year" include most useful, most creative, most unnecessary, most outrageous, most euphemistic, most likely to succeed, and least likely to succeed.
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Comments
The word “unfriend” is jargon that refers to face book. Why would the publisher of a dictionary waste its time with that? I don’t know how many people are on facebook but this doesn’t seem to be that commonly used. It’s not as though people have battles and “unfriend” each other, unless its on facebook. Granted, it’s relatively easy to remember but I think they could have done better. Thirty years or so ago the word “neologism” (defined as a “made up word” was used mainly in psychology to describe a behavior that occurred as a result of mental illness. It is more generally used now and is no longer as much a jargon word. My nomination is “googling” as a form of a verb. That’s sort of like calling a soda (pop, tonic if you’re from the Boston area) a Coke or a tissue a Kleenex. A word derived from a specific brand name or company, should not be used as a common noun or verb or other part of speech. That’s like subtle advertising for the company. How many of us almost automatically say “Coke” (more common in some places than others) as a generic term for a soft drink? How many people actually say Kleenex when they may actually be buyhing Scott tissue? Another thing that ticks me off in sort of the same way is the word I nominated. Why does Google become synonymous with web searching? It’s not the only search engine and sometimes not the best.
As for “distracted driving” drivers are distracted by a lot of things besides cell phones and MP3 players. What about the person who is looking in the mirror as s/he applies makeup, reads a map without pulling over and any number of other things like children crying or others engaging the driver in complex conversation. How often do drivers get frustrated by some of those kids’ favorite road qquestions as “Are we there yet” or statements (admittedly not confined to children but definitely distracting) “I have to go to the bathroom” though
Laura I’d rather they ask that than let it go and have an accident. Oops, was that a euphemism?
As for euphemisms for describing death, I hate “cashed in his/her chips”, “bought the farm” and so on? I think, in my opinion, should be banished unless a common word or name, like “Ford”