Words of the Year: A How-to

Ever wonder how those Word of the Year lists are produced? Well, here's your answer, in excruciating detail.

The WotY process has two stages: a morning meeting, in which nominations are sorted into categories, and the afternoon vote, when things get decided. Turnout is light in the morning, when we're usually clustered around a table; by the afternoon, we generally move to an open room to accommodate the crowds. At this year's morning meeting, the suggestions were plentiful. Military terms were prominent—we saw hillbilly armor and backdoor draft. Blog, 2002's Most Likely To Succeed, returned in forms like blogosphere and blogorrhea. The culture of blogging has also spawned related words like pajamahadeen, which refers to bloggers in their bedclothes who criticize the mainstream media and which won Most Creative later in the day. In the Most Euphemistic category, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction seemed like a lock until Bill Frawley, the dean of the Columbia College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University, suggested badly sourced, which was used by Colin Powell and others to mean "false."

Hello!? Can I get an editor in aisle six, please? We've got a reader down. I repeat: reader down.



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inCivility

YourDictionary.com has released its top words and phrases of 2004, most of which seem to be lead by the election. I like the Van Buren tidbit at the end of this article. I find the list of California cool words to be surprising. How does a geezer like me know all of these?



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Edited by author 12-08-2004 08:09 PM
the "dude" dialogue was the best part of "baseketball"

... beautiful, just, (sniff) beautiful

....

When academia meets comedy, dude

About ten years ago I used to watch a lot of stand up. I don't remember the name of the comedian, or the entire sequence, but this one fella had a bit on the word "dude" that went on about it's multiple uses. He said dude could be hello and made a happy-to-see-you face and waved and said, "Dude!"; he said dude could express disappointment and hung and shook his head and said, "Dude..."; he said dude could be a word of disgust and curled his lip and shook his head and said, "Dude!"; and my favourite: he said dude could be used to express "Is that you in the closet with a knife?" by craning his neck, looking frightened and saying, "Dude...?" Now, years later, someone else raised on that same bit has turned it into an academic paper saying, it seems all the same things, but with bigger words.

Historically, dude originally meant "old rags" — a "dudesman" was a scarecrow. In the late 1800s, a "dude" was akin to a "dandy," a meticulously dressed man, especially out West. It became "cool" in the 1930s and 1940s, according to Kiesling. Dude began its rise in the teenage lexicon with the 1981 movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

Ah, academia... taking the raw materials of life and selling them back to you as intellectual product. (Thanks to ZW for the link)



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On top of the world, ma!

"Blog" is M-W's choice for word of the year.



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Please note that "Twinkle" ranks higher than "gum", so ha!

"Mother"?

Hm. I would have gone for "trist" or maybe "Stefanis". Browr! (I can't believe some fo the words that made this list... "gum"?)

The wordlist, which contains only one verb (cherish) which is not also a noun, emerged after the council asked more than 7,000 learners in 46 countries what they considered the most beautiful words in English language. Some 35,000 other people registered their favourites in an online poll run in the non-English speaking countries where the council operates.

I still only hear Norman Bates when I hear "mother"... Hello, Mother. (Our regular readers will note the inclusion of the word "Twinkle"...)



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/m58 Opera means yes?

Wordcount
A cool little site that tracks the popularity of individual words and ranks them numerically. There are some interesting found poems in here.

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Are poets a waste? Opera!
Ah, palindromes....

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Bookninja: a gang of two
And other oxymorons.

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The dawn of "Liberati"

I am so suing this guy...

The Oxford English Dictionary is monitoring the infant word's progress and reports that its vital signs are good: with repeated usage it could grow up to become a proper dictionary word. Its entry will no doubt cite "liberal" and "literati" as its derivations, but it is its evocation of Liberace that truly gives it life.



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Ninja Rein's in Top Eight Percent!

I heard the grocer's putting his apostrophe in places we don't even want to know about....

One of the epidemic errors of the past 30 years - unnecessary, misplaced or omitted apostrophes in the words "its"and "it's" - has dwindled to only about 8% of people, possibly because the mistake has drawn so much ridicule. It was dubbed "the grocer's apostrophe" because of its unnecessary use in plural words on shop signs or placards (Price's Slashed).

There are plenty more mixed up homophones where this comes from.



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Neologisms

Languagehat points to a dictionary of "findable" terms.

This website is being developed as a record of new and evolving words and phrases in the English language, with special reference to UK English usage. One of its prime aims is to act as a repository for new words and phrases which are not otherwise listed on the Net - or at least not found by Search Engines. Hence the working title: Dictionary of Findable Words and Phrases.



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One should also recall that women prefer men who read books. So, perhaps what women really want is a "goodbooking" man who is reading Wicked Words: A Treasury of Curses, Insults, and Put-Downs. He may not even need to read it, just bend the corners, whisper a special "term of endearment" and the rest is history.....or rather the woman is.

Term of Endearment?

Varsity sports are creepy enough to begin with. They're filled with frat people. Ew. But getting the (female) president of a university involved in testifying on behalf of football players accused of sexual assault, creepier still, especially when under intense questioning about the use of the word "cunt" she tries to say it's meaning is contextual and it can be a "term of endearment". Then the backpedalling begins and she drags Chaucer in. The poor cock.



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