If you’re a dedicated word nerd, you may be aware of a momentous occasion that’s underway right now: The American Dialect Society is holding its 2009 meeting. And yes, the Society’s members will be discussing some wonkish topics, such as discourse particles in Canadian English (of course) and the influence of nasalization on vowel perception (why not?) – but they’ll be doing some fun stuff, too. Today, in fact, they’re choosing their 2008 words of the year.
Each year since 1990, the ADS has suspended its purely academic interests for a moment and held a contest among new – or newly used – words that are “reflective of the national discourse.” The society takes nominations from the general public as well as from a number of linguistics-world insiders, then its members vote on the entrants in a number of categories; “most useful,” for example, and “most likely to succeed.” They wrap up by choosing one overall winner.
Last year the big victor was “subprime,” which describes a riskier-than-average loan, as in, “The subprime mortgage crisis has us all in a tizzy.” For 2006 it was the verb “to Pluto,” which echoes the fate of that cute little sphere formerly known as a planet and therefore refers to demoting or devaluing something – as in, “It looks like the governor of Illinois is about to get Plutoed.”
The ADS isn’t the only group that chooses a word of the year: Dictionary publishers like to get in on the act, too, and they’ve already made their 2008 choices. Merriam-Webster went with an economy-related term, “bailout,” which describes a save-the-industry influx of cash, as in, “What a surprise it was to learn that pornographers want a bailout, too.”
The New Oxford American Dictionary, on the other hand, made an economically and environmentally inspired selection with “hypermiling,” which is the practice of maximizing a vehicle’s fuel usage, as in, “Drafting closely behind an 18-wheeler might seem like hypermiling to you, but it seems like a death wish to me.”
Webster’s New World Dictionary stayed away from both the economy and the environment – and even the election – and went with a social networking choice, instead. Their word of the year is “overshare,” which refers to divulging too much personal information, as in “Don’t post your weekend binge-drinking escapades on Facebook – it’s overshare.”
According to Webster’s Editor-in-Chief Mike Agnes, words of the year belong to “emerging English” and they don’t have “a breadth of usage yet that qualifies them for entry in the dictionary” – so you won’t be looking them up in books anytime soon.
And even the somewhat-staid American Dialect Society notes that the lexicographers, etymologists and grammarians who take part in the ADS event aren’t pretending that voting for annual word winners is an official or important part of their work. They’re simply having a good time by highlighting the fact that language change is normal – and it can be fun.
It’s fun, that is, unless you’re the one with the subprime job who’s getting Plutoed.
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Late-breaking news: The ADS chose "bailout" as well. They also chose words in a number of amusing categories, including:
Read the entire American Dialect Society press release here.
