Word of the Decade Nominations Open for 2000-2009

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:11 PM -0500 1/16/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Grant Barrett
><gbarrett at worldnewyork.org> wrote:
>>
>>  At the American Dialect Society annual meeting in Baltimore next
>>  January, not only will the Society choose Words of the Year just past,
>>  but members and friends will also have the solemn responsibility of
>>  choosing a Word of the Decade 2000-2009.
>>
>>  http://www.americandialect.org/woty2009/
>[snip]
>
>Since the overall WOTY winners didn't necessarily have much staying
>power (I'm lookin' at you, "plutoed"), I'd suggest we take a look back
>at what won the "most useful" and "most likely to succeed" categories
>in each year. From this vantage point, it looks like 2002's "google"
>and "blog" are obvious frontrunners.
>

Better "google" or "blog" (or "green") than "9/11" or "SARS" (or
"subprime").  If Giuliani had been elected, we'd have had to crown
"9/11", but as it is we have some wiggle room.

LH

>2000
>most useful: civil union
>most likely to succeed: muggle
>
>2001
>most useful: facial profiling / second-hand speech
>most likely to succeed: 9-11 (same as WOTY)
>
>2002
>most useful: google, v.
>most likely to succeed: blog
>
>2003
>most useful: flexitarian
>most likely to succeed: SARS
>
>2004
>most useful: phish, v.
>most likely to succeed: red/blue/purple states (same as WOTY)
>
>2005
>most useful: podcast
>most likely to succeed: sudoku
>
>2006
>most useful: climate canary
>most likely to succeed: YouTube, v.
>
>2007
>most useful: green- (prefix/combining form)
>most likely to succeed: green- (prefix/combining form)
>
>2008
>most useful: Barack Obama (combining form)
>most likely to succeed: shovel-ready
>
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org