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

[Wilson Gray]

Locavore: "one who vores locally"! Okay, now I get it. There are are
some cases in which it's necessary *not* to have had the benefit of a
classical education.

-Wilson

On 11/13/07, Clai Rice <cxr1086 at louisiana.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Clai Rice <cxr1086 at LOUISIANA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Locavore" is Oxford Word-of-the-Year
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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