Merriam-Webster Words of the Year 2008

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:
>
> Merriam-Webster Words of the Year 2008 are here
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/08words.htm . It's as usual a top-ten
> list based on web searches.

"As usual" except for 2006 and 2007, when it was determined by an
online vote. In 2006 the selection was open to any candidates,
resulting in the Colbert Nation swamping the voting with "truthiness".
In 2007 they let people pick from 20 finalists, including some
non-dictionary items from M-W's Open Dictionary project, and that
resulted in "w00t" being selected. Evidently they're now done with
their experiments in lexico-democracy.


> 1. bailout
>
> and 2-10:
>
> socialism
> maverick
> bipartisan
> trepidation
> precipice
> rogue
> misogyny
> turmoil
>
> Not bad, as a list of themes for 2008 in the US.
>
> Chris Waigl
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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