Webster ’s New World College Dictionary announces its word-of-the-year candidates

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Mon Dec 1 19:59:07 UTC 2008


The least odd choice, "overshare", has won.

http://newworldword.com/


On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 10:36 AM, Grant Barrett
<gbarrett at worldnewyork.org> wrote:
>
> Webster's New World College Dictionary has announced its top five
> words of the year candidates. Odd choices from WNW, as usual.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/69zku8
>
> leisure sickness: a purported syndrome, not universally recognized by
> psychologists, by which some people (typically characterized as
> workaholics) are more likely to report feeling ill during weekends and
> vacations than when working.
>
> overshare: to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or
> broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed
> discomfort to approval
>
> cyberchondriac: a hypochondriac who imagines that he or she has a
> particular disease based on medical information gleaned from the
> Internet
>
> selective ignorance: the practice of selectively ignoring distracting,
> irrelevant, or otherwise unnecessary information received, such as e-
> mails, news reports, etc.
>
> youthanasia: "…The controversial practice of performing a battery of
> age-defying medical procedures to end lifeless skin and wrinkles;
> advocated by some as a last-resort measure to put the chronically
> youth-obsessed out of their misery…Think of it as mercy lifting." –
> Armand Limnander, New York Times
>
> Grant Barrett
> gbarrett at worldnewyork.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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