Words of the Year and the Century

[AAllan at AOL.COM]

ABC was confused. Since that seems to spread the confusion worldwide, here's
the explanation I just sent to Grant Barrett. - Allan Metcalf

ABC was misled by the list of words of the 20th century that came not from
ADS but from the book by David Barnhart and me. We used our list as nominees;
the Chicago Tribune printed that list, with proper attribution; but ABC,
picking it up from the Tribune, thought it was ADS choices.

The American Dialect Society has been choosing Words of the Year since 1990.
Two of the organizers of the Word of the Year vote, David K. Barnhart and
Allan A. Metcalf, published their own personal choices for words of the year
in the whole history of American English in their book _America in So Many
Words_ (Houghton Mifflin, 1997 and 1999). They offered these words from the
1900s as their own nominees for Words of the Century:

1900    phony
1901    grass roots
1902    goo
1903    highbrow
1904    cut the mustard
1905    jellybean
1906    muckraker
1906    teddy bear
1907    melting pot
1908    asleep at the switch
1909    pork barrel
1910    barbershop
1911    blues
1912    movies
1913    jazz
1914    backpack
1915    flapper
1916    IQ
1917    GI
1918    D Day
1919    T shirt
1920    normalcy
1921    media
1922    cold turkey
1923    hijack
1924    brainstorm
1925    motel
1926    Bible Belt
1927    macho
1928    athlete’s foot
1929    jalopy
1930    bulldozer
1931    skid row
1932    hopefully
1933    supermarket
1934    whistlestop
1935    boondoggle
1936    streamline
1937    groovy
1938    teenager
1939    juke box
1940    jeep
1941    multicultural
1942    gizmo
1943    acronym
1944    snafu
1945    showbiz
1946    iron curtain, cold war
1947    babysit
1948    cybernetics
1949    cool
1950    DJ
1951    rock and roll
1952    Ms.
1953    UFO
1954    fast food
1955    hotline
1956    brinkmanship
1957    role model
1958    Murphy’s Law
1959    software
1960    sit-in
1961    biodegradable
1962    carpool
1963    duh
1964    swing voter
1965    affirmative action
1966    credibility gap
1967    ripoff
1968    aerobics
1969    sexism and ageism
1970    bottom line
1971    workaholic
1972    Watergate
1973    sound bite
1974    streak
1975    substance
1976    couch potato
1977    loony tunes
1978    geek
1979    stealth
1980    gridlock
1981    wannabe
1982    like
1983    greenmail
1984    yuppie
1985    rocket scientist
1986    dis
1987    codependency
1988    envelope, push the
1989    virtual reality
1990    PC
1991    about
1992    Not!
1993    newbie
1994    go postal
1995    newt
1996    soccer mom
1997    Ebonics
1998    millennium bug