[Ads-l] WOTY candidate: "twalking" = 'texting while walking'

[Barretts Mail]

Here’s a candidate that seems likely to stick:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Texting%20Zombie <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Texting%20Zombie>

BB

> On 14 Nov 2019, at 07:58, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> "
> "People who text while walking need a word to describe them"
> --I guess "dearly departed" or "corpses-in-waiting" aren't sufficiently
> specific.  But I agree that "twalkers", like its referents, doesn't have a
> promising future.
> LH
> 
> On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 10:33 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 9:36 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Not sure how brand new it is, but I encountered it (the term, not the
>>> activity) for the first time today, in a piece on the first page of the
>>> Times Business section. Not a brilliant coinage, but I suppose an
>>> inevitable one, especially since it seems to conjure both "tweeting" and
>>> "talking" as well.  Maybe for the "unlikely to succeed" category?
>>> 
>> 
>> Back in 2015 I wrote a Wall Street Journal column about suggested terms for
>> the walking-while-texting phenomenon, including "wexting" and "distracted
>> walking." Those who text while walking have been called "petextrians,"
>> "pedtextrians," or "digital deadwalkers."
>> 
>> https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-do-you-call-a-reckless-texter-1451407390
>> 
>> None of those have caught on since then, and I can't see "twalking" being
>> any more successful. But keep in mind that we've retired the "least likely
>> to succeed" category in our WOTY voting (along with some other unloved
>> categories).
>> 
>> --bgz


------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org