[Ads-l] WOTY candidate: "twalking" = 'texting while walking'

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 9:36 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Not sure how brand new it is, but I encountered it (the term, not the
> activity) for the first time today, in a piece on the first page of the
> Times Business section. Not a brilliant coinage, but I suppose an
> inevitable one, especially since it seems to conjure both "tweeting" and
> "talking" as well.  Maybe for the "unlikely to succeed" category?
>

Back in 2015 I wrote a Wall Street Journal column about suggested terms for
the walking-while-texting phenomenon, including "wexting" and "distracted
walking." Those who text while walking have been called "petextrians,"
"pedtextrians," or "digital deadwalkers."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-do-you-call-a-reckless-texter-1451407390

None of those have caught on since then, and I can't see "twalking" being
any more successful. But keep in mind that we've retired the "least likely
to succeed" category in our WOTY voting (along with some other unloved
categories).

--bgz

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