The American Dialect Society voted yesterday on their latest word of the year. It is: Because X, as in “Why? Because Linguistics.”
20 years ago the word(s) of the year (a tie) were: cyber and morph.
1994 Word of the Year: (tie) cyber, pertaining to computers and electronic communication, and morph, to change form. Most Promising: Infobahn, the Internet. Most Useful: gingrich, to deal with government agencies, policies, and people in the manner of U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Most Imaginative: guillermo, an e-mail message in a foreign language. (The Spanish name Guillermo has the nicknameMemo.) Most Trendy: dress down day or casual day, a workday when employees are allowed to dress casually. Most Euphemistic: challenged indicating an undesirable or unappealing condition. Most Beautiful: sylvanshine, night-time iridescence of certain forest trees.
Share this:
