words of the year

[JoAnn Express]

American Dialect Society Annual Meeting
January 7, 2000
Nominations for the 1999 Word of the Year, the Word of the Decade,
the Word of the Century, and the Word of the Millennium

Words of the Year

Most Useful
                Y2K   Year 2000 (and all that it entails)
                dot-com   Company operating on the Web
                ___fatigue   As in millennium fatigue, Clinton fatigue
Most Unnecessary
                millennium fatigue      Exhaustion over discussion of the millennium
                milly   Dance for the millennium commissioned by the City of Chicago
                birdosaur   Flying dinosaur
                compassionate conservative    Dubya’s political label
Most Likely to Succeed
                e-tail  Retail over the Web
                dot-com   Company operating on the Web
                portal   Entry site to the Web
Most Outrageous
                denim defense   Victim’s wearing of tight jeans as a defense against a
rape charge
                Acela   Amtrak trademark for new service
                humanitarian intervention   Military force used for humanitarian purposes
Most Orginal
                cybersquat   Register a Web address intending to sell it later
                HMO+   Covered by a bad HMO
                coffee-zilla   Very strong coffee
                logobeef   Something thrown over a high balcony (student slang)
Most Euphemistic
                possum-rider   Person indiscriminate with sexual partners (student slang)
                m’kay   Substitute for F-word (South Park)
                Your call is very important to us   Answering machine message
Brand New
                mousetrapping   Blocking exit from a Web site
                Pokémania   Obsession with Pokémon
                trench coat mafia   Puported clique of students at Columbine High School

Word of the Year

Words of the Decade

                e-
                ethnic cleansing
                Web
                Franken___   Genetically modified, as in Frankenfood
                senior moment
                way  Very

Words of the Century

                teenager
                jazz
                T-shirt
                modern
                DNA
                media
                acronym
                teddy bear
                World War
                cool
                melting pot

Words of the Millennium

                science
                freedom
                news
                justice
                truth
                nature
                history
                human
                book
                language
                go
                the



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