Query or Quibble?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Jan 5, 2008 9:33 PM, Geraldine Hizer <Urqu at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Your LIST was made public today, and I wondered if possibly the networks
> have mangled one of your choices for Word of the Year.
> Specifically, ''googledanger'' - (that is the spelling that appeared on the
> screen in the news byte) seems to be not only the best of the four chosen,
> deserving of first place, but if your intent is a play on the word
> "doppelganger", as I immediately gathered from the meaning as explained by that
> network spokesman: another person of same name when you 'google' your own, then
> 'googledanger' is wrong. Right? Tell me he misspoke, or his prompter  misunderstood,
> too.

It is indeed "Googleganger" (or more properly "Googlegänger"), as
you'll find it spelled in the ADS press release and the surrounding
news coverage:

http://www.americandialect.org/Word-of-the-Year_2007.pdf
http://news.google.com/news?q=googleganger

Can I ask, which network news show had the item you saw, and whether
the announcer said "Googledanger" like the word "danger" or "dang +
er"?


--Ben Zimmer

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