The word(s) of the year, sometimes capitalized as "Word(s) of the Year" and abbreviated "WOTY" (or "WotY"), refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word(s) or expression(s) in the public sphere during a specific year.
Contents
- American Dialect Society
- Selection
- Categories
- Most Useful
- Most Creative
- Most Unnecessary
- Most Outrageous
- Most Euphemistic
- Most Likely to Succeed
- Least Likely to Succeed
- Special Categories
- Macquarie Dictionary
- Merriam Webster
- Oxford
- Grant Barrett
- Global Language Monitor
- 20002009 decade words and phrases
- A Word a Year
- Other countries
- References
The German tradition, Wort des Jahres was started in 1971. For English language, the oldest of these, and the only one that is announced after the end of the calendar year, determined by a vote of independent linguists, and not tied to commercial interests, is the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year. However, various other organizations also announce Words of the Year for promotional purposes.
The most popular and overused Words of the Year tend to appear on lists of words to avoid, such as the List of 'banished' words and phrases from Lake Superior State University and other organizations.
American Dialect Society
Since 1991, the American Dialect Society (ADS) has designated one or more words or terms to be the "Word of the Year" in the United States:
The society also chose a "Word of the 1990s" (web), "Word of the 20th Century" (jazz), "Word of the Past Millennium" (she), and "Word of the Decade (2000–2009)" (google as a verb).
Selection
Other candidates for "Word of the Year" have included:
Categories
In addition to the "Word of the Year", the society also selects words in other categories that vary from year to year:
Most Useful
Most Creative
Most Unnecessary
Most Outrageous
Most Euphemistic
Most Likely to Succeed
Least Likely to Succeed
Special Categories
Macquarie Dictionary
The Macquarie Dictionary, which is the dictionary of Australian English, updates the online dictionary each year with new words, phrases, and definitions. These can be viewed on their website.
Each year the editors select a short list of new words added to the dictionary and invite the public to vote on their favourite. The public vote is held in January and results in the People's Choice winner. The most influential word of the year is also selected by the Word of the Year Committee which is chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Dr Michael Spence. The Editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, Susan Butler, is also a committee member. The Committee meets annually to select the overall winning words.
The following is the list of winning words since the Macquarie Word of the Year first began in 2006:
Merriam-Webster
The lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year (for each year) are ten-word lists published annually by the American dictionary-publishing company Merriam-Webster, Inc., which feature the ten words of the year from the English language. These word lists started in 2003 and have been published at the end of each year. At first, Merriam-Webster determined its contents by analyzing page hits and popular searches on its website. Since 2006, the list has been determined by an online poll and by suggestions from visitors to the website.
The following is the list of words that became Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year since 2003:
Oxford
Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary and many other dictionaries, announces an Oxford Dictionaries UK Word of the Year and an Oxford Dictionaries US Word of the Year; sometimes these are the same word. The Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months but it does need to have become prominent or notable during that time. There is no guarantee that the Word of the Year will be included in any Oxford dictionary. The Oxford Dictionaries Words of the Year are selected by editorial staff from each of the Oxford dictionaries. The selection team is made up of lexicographers and consultants to the dictionary team, and editorial, marketing, and publicity staff.
Grant Barrett
Since 2004, lexicographer Grant Barrett has published a words-of-the-year list, usually in the New York Times, though he does not name a winner.
Global Language Monitor
The Global Language Monitor (GLM) has been selecting the Top Words of the Year since 2000. GLM states the Top Words, Phrases, and Names of the Year provide a history of each year since 2000 through English-language word usage. To select these words and phrases, it uses a [big data], [data mining] statistical analysis of language usage in the worldwide print and electronic media, the Internet, and the blogosphere, as well as social media, though several linguists and lexicographers have charged that its mathematical methodologies are flawed.
GLM announced "Emoji" as its Top Word of 2014 for Global English along with its complete lists of Top Words, Phrases, and Names in December 2014.
Earlier in 2015 GLM has released:
GLM announced [Microaggression] as the Top Word, [Donald J. Trump] as the Top Name, and [Migrant Crisis] as the Top Phrase for global English for 2015 on December 28, 2015.
2000–2009 decade words and phrases
Words:
- global warming (2000), rated highly from day one of the decade
- 9/11 (2001), for the September 11 attacks
- Obama- (2008), the U.S. President's name as a root word or word stem
- bailout (2008), The Bank Bailout was but Act One of the crisis
- evacuee/refugee (2005), after Katrina, refugees became evacuees
- derivative (2007), financial instrument or analytical tool that engendered the Meltdown
- google (2007), from Google Search, after word 'googol'
- surge (2007), the strategy that effectively ended the Iraq War
- Chinglish (2005), Chinese-English hybrid language growing larger as Chinese influence expands
- tsunami (2004), from Southeast Asian tsunami which took 250,000 lives
- H1N1 (2009), a strain of the Swine Flu
- default (2007), subprime mortgages linked to financial troubles
- dot.com (2000), the dot.com bubble of computer layoffs, before ecommerce regrew
- Y2K (2000), from the Y2K bug of computers mishandling dates after 1999
- misunderestimate (2002), a term from George W. Bush
- chad (2000), paper chips from voter punched cards in the 2000 Florida election recount
- twitter (2008), with a quarter of a billion references on Google
- WMD (2002), Iraq's supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction
- blog (2003), first called "weblog" which contracted into "blog"
- texting (2004), sending text messages (not voice recordings) over cell phones
- slumdog (2008), child inhabitants of Mumbai's slums
- sustainable (2006), key to "Green" living where natural resources are never depleted
- Brokeback (2004), new term for 'gay' from the Hollywood film Brokeback Mountain
- quagmire (2004), as would the Iraq War end up like Vietnam, another "quagmire"?
- truthiness (2006), Stephen Colbert's word for truth based on intuition not evidence or reason
Also worth noting: 'embedded' (2003), to embed reporters with US troops.
Phrases:
- climate change (2000), Green words in every form dominate the decade
- Financial Tsunami (2008), one-quarter of the world's wealth vanishes seemingly overnight
- ground zero (2001), site of 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City
- War on Terror (2001), G.W. Bush administration's response to 9/11
- Weapons of Mass Destruction (2003), Bush's WMD never found in Iraq or the Syrian desert
- swine flu (2008), specifically the H1N1 strain of flu virus
- "Let's Roll!" (2001), Todd Beamer's last words heard before Flight 93 crashed into the PA countryside
- Red State/Blue State (2004), Republican (red) or Democratic (blue) control of U.S. states
- carbon footprint (2007), the amount of CO2 an activity produces
- shock-and-awe (2003), initial strategy of Iraq War to terrorize Iraqi forces
- Ponzi scheme (2009), when Madoff's rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul strategy reaped billions & heartache
- Category 4 (2005), for Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Wilma
- King of Pop (2000), Elvis was the King, MJ the King (of Pop)
- "Stay the course" (2004), George W. Bush's off-stated guidance for Iraq War
- "Yes, we can!" (2008), Obama's winning campaign slogan
- "Jai Ho!" (2008), shout of joy (and song) from film Slumdog Millionaire
- "Out of the Mainstream" (2003), complaint about any opposition's political platform
- cloud computing (2007), using the Internet (or other network) as a large computational device
- threat fatigue (2004), one too many terrorist threat alerts
- same-sex marriage (2003), marriage of gay or lesbian couples
A Word a Year
Since 2004, Susie Dent, an English lexicographer has published a column, "A Word a Year", in which she chooses a single word from each of the last 101 years to represent preoccupations of the time. Susie Dent notes that the list is subjective. Each year, she gives a completely different set of words.
Since Susie Dent works for the Oxford University Press, her words of choice are often incorrectly referred to as "Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year".
Other countries
In Germany, a Wort des Jahres has been selected since 1972 (for year 1971) by the Society of the German Language. In addition, an Unwort des Jahres (Un-word of the year or No-no Word of the Year) has been nominated since 1991, for a word or phrase in public speech deemed insulting or socially inappropriate (such as "Überfremdung"). Similar selections are made each year since 1999 in Austria, 2002 in Liechtenstein, and 2003 in Switzerland.
In Denmark, the Word of the year has been selected since 2008 by Danmarks Radio and Dansk Sprognævn.
In Norway, the Word of the year poll is carried out since 2012.
In Russia, the Word of the year poll is carried out since 2007.
In Ukraine, the Word of the year poll is carried out since 2013.