"Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year

[Clai Rice]

I notice that the verb "tase" is a runner up. The Chronicle of Higher
Education reacted to the usage issues:
The verb isn't capitalized even though the noun from which it derives is.
...
Readers may imagine that the new linguistic terrain caused some
consternation at the fastidious Chronicle. But even we used "tase" as a verb
before Oxford's announcement.
http://chronicle.com/news/article/?id=3417&at

--Clai Rice

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barry Popik [mailto:bapopik at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 5:33 PM
> Subject: "Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year
>
> "Locavore." Someone named Ben Zimmer praises this food word.
> This, from a dictionary that doesn't even have "ranch" dressing!
> ...
> ...
> ...
> http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/
> Oxford Word Of The Year: Locavore
>  November 12, 2007
>
> It's that time of the year again. It is finally starting to
> get cold (if you are worried about the global warming maybe
> you should become
> carbon-neutral) and the New Oxford American Dictionary is
> preparing for the holidays by making its biggest announcement
> of the year. The
> 2007 Word of the Year is (drum-roll please) locavore.
>
> The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using
> locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally
> available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without
> the need for extra preservatives.
>
> The "locavore" movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers'
> markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that
> fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better.
> Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an
> environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over
> long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.
>
> "The word 'locavore' shows how food-lovers can enjoy what
> they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the
> environment,"
> said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford
> University Press. "It's significant in that it brings
> together eating and ecology in a new way."
>
> "Locavore" was coined two years ago by a group of four women
> in San Francisco who proposed that local residents should try
> to eat only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius.
> Other regional movements have emerged since then, though some
> groups refer to themselves as "localvores" rather than
> "locavores." However it's spelled, it's a word to watch.
>
> Runners-up for the 2007 Word of the Year include:
>
> aging in place: the process of growing older while living in
> one's own residence, instead of having to move to a new home
> or community
>
> bacn: email notifications, such as news alerts and social
> networking updates, that are considered more desirable than
> unwanted "spam"
> (coined at PodCamp Pittsburgh in Aug. 2007 and popularized in
> the blogging community)
>
> cloudware: online applications, such as webmail, powered by
> massive data storage facilities, also called "cloud servers"
>
> colony collapse disorder: a still-unexplained phenomenon
> resulting in the widespread disappearance of honeybees from
> beehives, first observed in late 2006
>
> cougar: an older woman who romantically pursues younger men
>
> MRAP vehicle: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle,
> designed to protect troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs)
>
> mumblecore: an independent film movement featuring low-budget
> production, non-professional actors, and largely improvised dialogue
>
> previvor: a person who has not been diagnosed with a form of
> cancer but has survived a genetic predisposition for cancer
>
> social graph: the network of one's friends and connections on
> social websites such as Facebook and Myspace
>
> tase (or taze): to stun with a Taser (popularized by a Sep.
> 2007 incident in which a University of Florida student was
> filmed being stunned by a Taser at a public forum)
>
> upcycling: the transformation of waste materials into
> something more useful or valuable
>

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