Re: Re: Fairly new word(?): "exoneree"

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

Larry writes: 

> . . . antedating the Washington Post cite by 9 years.  So much for its WOTY 
> candidacy.
> 
Not so. WOTY doesn't practice ageism. Soon after starting the WOTY annual 
voting in 1990, we realized that most of the likely suspects had histories. 
For example, "Not!" was our word (or expression) of the year 1992. That vote 
prompted ADS members Jesse Sheidlower and Jonathan Lighter to look into the 
past of "Not!" They found an example from 1900, but it didn't dethrone "Not!" 
for 1992. (See American Speech for summer 1993 . . . available online to ADS 
members, of course.)

So we learned to call it "Words of the Year" rather than "*New* Words of the 
Year." We look for newly prominent words (or phrases - we also don't limit 
ourselves to single words), words that reflect the linguistic preoccupations 
of the year.

and thus "exonoree" is exonerated.

- Allan Metcalf