Tweet” 2009 Word of the Year, “Google” Word of the Decade, as voted by American Dialect Society
In its 20th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “tweet” (noun, a short message sent via the Twitter.com service, and verb, the act of sending such a message) as the word of the year and “google” (a generic form of “Google,” meaning “to search the Internet) as its word of the decade. Presiding at the Jan. 8 voting session。
“Both words are, in the end, products of the Information Age, where every person has the ability to satisfy curiosity and to broadcast to a select following, both via the Internet。” Barrett said. “I really thought blog would take the honors in the word of the decade category, but more people google than blog, don’t they? Plus, many people think ‘blog’ just sounds ugly. Maybe Google’s trademark lawyers would have preferred it, anyway。”
WORD OF THE YEAR WINNER:
tweet, noun, a short message sent via the Twitter.com service, and verb, the act of sending such a message。
Other nominees for word of the year:
-er A suffix used in such words as birther, someone who questions whether Obama was born in the United States; deather, someone who believes the government has death panels in its healthcare reform plan; Tenther, someone who believes the Federal government is mostly illegal because it usurps rights which belong to the States, in violation of the 10th Amendment; and truther, someone who doubts the official account of the 9/11 attacks。
fail A noun or interjection describing something egregiously unsuccessful. Usually used as an interjection:“FAIL!”
H1N1 The virus that causes swine flu。
public option A government-run healthcare insurance program, desired by some to be part of the country's healthcare reform。
Dracula sneeze Covering one’s mouth with the crook of one’s elbow when sneezing, seen as similar to popular portrayals of the vampire Dracula, in which he hides the lower half of his face with a cape。
WORD OF THE DECADE WINNER:
google Verb meaning “to search the Internet。” Generic form of the trademarked “Google,” the world’s dominant Internet search engine。
Other nominees for word of the decade:
9/11 The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Pronounced “nine eleven。”
blog A web site for publishing a chronologicaland ongoing series of related entries, especially when they are all by the same person(s) or on the same topic. Also a productive combining form: blogosphere, blogerati, milblog, blogola。
green elated to ecological or environmental conservation or protection. Also a productive combining form: green washing, green collar, etc。
text Verb. to send a text message via a mobile phone. Noun: such a message。
war on terror A global effort to prevent terror and terrorists。
Wi-Fi abbreviation Wireless Fidelity, a group of technical standards enabling the transmission of data over wireless networks。
American Dialect Society: Words of Previous Years
2008Word of the Year： bailout, the rescue by the government of companies on the brink of failure, including large players in the banking industry。
Most Useful: Barack Obama, both names as combining forms。
Most Creative: recombo bulation area, an area at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee in which passengers that have just passed through security screening can get their clothes and belongings back in order。
Most Unnecessary: moofing, from “mobile out of office,” meaning working on the go with a laptop and cell phone. Created by a PR firm。
Most Outrageous: terrorist fist jab, A knuckle to- knuckle fist bump, or “dap,” traditionally performed between two black people as a sign of friendship, celebration or agreement. It was called the “terrorist fist jab” by the newscaster E. D. Hill, formerly of Fox News。
Most Euphemistic: scooping technician, A person whose job it is to pick up dog poop。
Most Likely to Succeeed: shovel-ready, Used to describe infrastructure projects that can be started quickly when funds become available。
Least Likely to Succeed: PUMA, An acronym for Party Unity My Ass, used by Democrats who were disaffected after Hillary Clinton failed to secure a sufficient number of delegates. It was later said to stand for Party Unity Means Action。
New Category Election-Related Words: maverick, a person who is beholden to no one. Widely used by the Republican Presidential and Vice- Presidential candidates, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Also in the adjectival form mavericky, used by Tina Fey portraying Palin on Saturday Night Live。
2007Word of the Year：subprime, an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage, or investment。
Most Useful: green- prefix/compounding form, designates environmental concern, as in green washing。
Most Creative: googleg nger, a person with your name who shows up when you google yourself。
Most Unnecesssary: Happy Kwanhanamas! [Kwanza + Hanukka + Christmas] Happy holidays!
Most Outrageous: toe tapper, A homosexual. Senator Larry Craig was arrested in June for an encounter in a public restroom in which toe-tapping was said to have been used as a sexual come on。
Most Euphemistic: human terrain team, a group of social scientists employed by the US military to serve as cultural advisers in Iraq or Afghanistan。
Most Likely to Succeeed: green- prefix/compounding form, designates environmental concern, as in green washing。
Least Likely to Succeed: strand-in, protest duplicating being stranded inside an airplane on a delayed flight。
New Category, Real Estate Words: subprime, used to describe a risky or poorly documented loan or mortgage。
2006Word of the Year,to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued。
Most Useful: climate canary, an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon。
Most Creative: lactard, a person who is lactose-intolerant。
Most Unnecessary: uriKat, the supposed nickname of the baby girl of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes。
Most Outrageous: Cambodian accessory, Angelina Jolie’s adopted child who is Cambodian。
Most Euphemistic: water boarding terrorist fist jab, an interrogation technique in which the subject is immobilized and doused with water to simulate drowning; reported to be used by U.S. interrogators against terrorism detainees。
Most Likely to Succeed: YouTube as a verb, to use the YouTube web site or to have a video of one’s self be posted on the site。
Least Likely to Succeed: grup, a Gen-Xer who does not act his or her age。
New Category, Pluto- Related Words: to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued。
2005Word of the Year
truthiness, what one wishes to be the truth regardless of the facts. (From the Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, a mock news show on Comedy Central。)
Most Useful: podcast, audio or video file for downloading. Most Creative: whale-tail, the appearance of thong or g-string underwear above the waistband。
Most Unnecessary: K Fed, Kevin Federline, Mr. Britney Spears。
Most Outrageous: crotchfruit, a child or children。
Most Euphemistic: internal nutrition force-feeding a prisoner。
Most Likely to Succeed: sudokunumber puzzle from Japan。
Least Likely to Succeed: popesquatting registering a likely domain name of a new pope before the pope chooses his new name in order to profit from it。
Special nonce category, Best Tom Cruise-Related Word: jump the couch, to exhibit frenetic behavior like Cruise’s couch-bouncing on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show。
2004Word of the Year: red/blue/purple states, red favoring conservative Republicans and blue favoring liberal Democrats, as well as the undecided purple states in the political map of the United States。
Most Useful: phish, to induce someone to reveal private information by means of deceptive email。
Most Creative: pajamahadeen, bloggers who challenge and fact-check traditional media。
Most Unnecessary: stalkette, a female stalker。
Most Outrageous: santorum, byproduct of anal sex, using the name of a senator opposed to the practice。
Most Euphemistic: badly sourced, false。
Most Likely to Succeed: red/blue/purple states。
Least Likely to Succeed: FLOHPA, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, important states in the 2004 presidential election。
2003Word of the Year:
metro sexual, fashion-conscious heterosexual male。
Most Useful: flexitarian, vegetarian who occasionally eats meat。
Most Creative: freegan, person who eats only free food。
Most Unnecessary: freedom for “French,” as in fries and kisses。
Most Outrageous: cliterati, feminist writers or leaders。
Most Euphemistic: pre-emptive self-defense, attack before a possible attack on oneself。
Most Likely to Succeed: SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, viral disease first reported in Asia in February。
Least Likely to Succeed: tomacco, poisonous hybrid of tomato and tobacco。
Best Revival of an old term: spider hole, World War II term for a hole deeper than a foxhole used for surprise attacks; in 2003, where Saddam Hussein was hiding。
2002Word of the Year: weapons of mass destruction or WMD, sought for in Iraq。
Most Likely to Succeed: blog, from “weblog,” a website of personal events, comments, and links。
Most Useful: google (verb)， as in “to google someone,” to search the Web using the search engine Google for information on a person or thing。
Most Creative: Iraqnophobia, strong fear of Iraq。
Most Unnecessary: wombanization, feminization, from Alexander Barnes’s book “The Book Read Backwards: The Deconstruction of Patriarchy and the Wombanization of Being。”
Most Outrageous: neuticles, fake testicles for neutered pets。
Most Euphemistic: regime change, forced change in leadership。
2001Word of the Year:9-11, 9/11 or September 11, terrorist attacks on that date。
Most Likely to Succeed:9-11.
Most Useful (tie)：facial profiling, using video “faceprint ” to identify terrorists and criminals, and second-hand speech, cell phone conversations heard by others in public places。
Most Creative: shuicide bomber, terrorist with bomb in shoes。
Most Unnecessary: impeachment nostalgia, longing for the superficial news of the Clinton era。
Least Likely to Succeed: Osamaniac, woman sexually attracted to terrorist Osama bin Laden。
Most Outrageous: assoline, methane used as fuel. Most Euphemistic: daisy cutter, large bomb that explodes a few feet above the ground。
Most Inspirational: Let’s roll! words of Todd Beamer to start the attack that foiled the hijackers of United Flight 93 on September 11.
2000Word of the Year: chad, a small scrap of paper punched from a voting card。
Most Likely to Succeed: muggle, Harry Potter term for a non-wizard; a mundane, unimaginative person。
Most Useful:civil union, legal same-sex marriage。
Most Creative: dot bomb, a failed dot-com。
Most Unnecessary: sudden loss of wealth syndrome。
Least Likely to Succeed: kablokeys, used in phrases like “It scared the kablokeys out of me。”
Most Outrageous: wall humping, rubbing a thigh against a security card scanner to allow access without removing the card from one's pocket。
Most Euphemistic: courtesy call, an uninvited call from a telemarketer。
Brand New(coined during the year, not previously attested)： unconcede, to rescind a concession as presidential candidate Al Gore did on election night. (It was later discovered that candidate Bob Dole had unconceded the presidential election in 1996, and there were occasional instances of that word going back several centuries。)
每一年，美国方言协会(ADS)都会选出当年最热门、最具影响力的英语词汇，而过去十年间的No.1是谁呢?最终“Google”赢得了这一殊荣，不过注意这里它不是那家搜索引擎公司，而已经是个通用动词，意思是利用Google搜索引擎在WWW上查找资料。
和Google一起入围最终决赛圈的其他五个候选词汇是：“9/11”(九一一事件)、“green”(绿色节能)、“blog”(博客)、“text”(短信)、“war on terror”(反恐战争)。
回到2002年，当时的年度词汇是“weapons of mass destruction”(大规模杀伤性武器)，而Google被选为最有用的，blog则是最有潜力的。2006年年中，《牛津英语词典》和《韦氏词典》陆续将Google收录为动词。如今，我们已经很难想象没有Google的世界。
十年来最火热的词汇大多数都是互联网造就的，但也有很多来自政治或者媒体，或者二者兼而有之，比如出自美国大选的“red state”(支持共和党的红色之州)和“blue state”(支持民主党的蓝色之州)。
以下是过去十年的年度英语词汇：
2000：Chad、Courtesy call、Civil union、Nader traitor
2001：9/11、Suicide bomber、Ground zero、Misunderestimate
2002：WMD、Google(动词)、Blog、Amber alert、Regime change
2003：Metrosexual、Embed、SARS、Pre-emptive self defense
2004：Red state、blue state、purple state、Flip-flopper、Phish、krunked
2005：Truthiness、Katrina、Podcast、Sudoku
2006：Plutoed、Macaca、YouTube、Lactard、waterboarding
2007：Subprime、Facebook、Green-(前缀)、Truther、Toe tapper
2008：Bailout、Barack Obama、Change、maverick、Shovel ready、TWD (texting while driving)、Bromance、Terrorist fist jab
2009：Tweet、-er(后缀)、Fail、Public option、H1N1、Death panel、Sexting |
|
