Word OF The Year

It's time for the word of the year report. And for 2010 the "Word of the Year", as selected each year by the American Dialect Society, is "app". Don't you just hate that word? Is it not used way too much? "nom, nom, nom, nom", the grunt by The Cookie Monster as he lovingly eats his latest cookie treat finished second to app this year. Selecting these two rather inane words as winners does indicate the depths to which U.S. culture has sunk.

Members of ADS who voted app number one claim that 2010 was the year the word became omnipresent, so they hate to pick it first. At least the winner isn't "like" or "you know". Nom" supporters simply liked it's cheeriness. "Tweet" and "Google" were last year's "Word of the Year" and "Word of the Decade." I think this year's choice is far less annoying. The words or phrases chosen as the winner do not have to be brand-new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year.

In addition to picking the word of the year, the ADS had category winners too. For example in the "most useful' category included "junk" and "fat-finger". The "most outrageous " word category included "gate rape" (term for those pat downs at security airport gates) and "terror baby" (a baby born to a terrorists family on U.S. soil in order to establish U.S. citizenship). There were ten categories, but I will spare you a review of each.

What's good about these kind of fun lists (I am sure the society of linguists who make these selections mean it only as a fun concept) is that it reminds us the power of English, how English more than any other language, is accepting of new vocabulary, even nonsensical words and phrases. It is proof that English is a living language and is an adaptable one. That might be why we can all understand the Paris Hilton's of the world when they utter "That's Hot!" or whatever else they grunt when they speak.A language is only as good as its lowest level of use and vocabulary. I think English has produced some delightful low level uttering to contrast to its more serious use.

Uh....for details of that nadir just read any of my writing here...