Comments on: Words of the Year 2002 Awards

Words of the Year 2002 Awards

Voyageman — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:55:38 -0800

Words of the Year 2002 Awards American Dialect Society Word of the Year : "WMD - weapons of mass destruction". Most Unnecessary: "wombanization" . Most Outrageous: "neuticles" . Most Useful (by unanimous decision): "google".....1991 Word of the Year: "mother of all."

By: LoopSouth

LoopSouth — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:14:05 -0800

I don't think I have ever... well... ever heard the term "grid butt" before. Botox parties? damn... Iraq scares us, yet the Botox parties rave on... What a country.

By: jodic

jodic — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:25:38 -0800

at first i thought that read "wombatization" which was much more interesting.

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:31:42 -0800

dialarhoea, inadvertent dialing of a cell phone in a pocket or handbag (8)

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 14:59:04 -0800

See also this thread about useless and unnecessary words.

By: dolface

dolface — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:08:00 -0800

i am happy to report that i own one neuticle all right all right, it's on a keychain, but still...

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:20:46 -0800

Hmmm...BLOG also made the short list, and was also voted "Most Likely To Succeed." Personally, I think the words "WHIMSY" and "PLETHORA" are highly underrated and need to be used much more often in our society. Anyone else have "pet" words that they enjoy using, much to the bafflement of others?

By: thomcatspike

thomcatspike — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:23:01 -0800

Anyone else have "pet" words that they enjoy using, much to the bafflement of others? What, dude...

By: dolface

dolface — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:27:15 -0800

i'm partial to 'aphasia', 'chunk', 'slab' and 'delaminate'

By: krunk

krunk — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:36:57 -0800

I've always thought 'embiggens' was a perfectly cromulent word.

By: dolface

dolface — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:45:00 -0800

ooh, and 'crepuscular'

By: bonehead

bonehead — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:57:47 -0800

Sometimes I wool-gather, sometimes my thoughts are peripatetic, and sometimes I read Mefi.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 15:57:55 -0800

defenestrate (always a favorite), visually interesting (euphemism for ugly), TiVo (as a verb), TiVo surfing, glurge.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:09:33 -0800

"Anyone else have "pet" words that they enjoy using, much to the bafflement of others?" Yes.

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:39:28 -0800

201 (k), a 401 (k) retirement account ruined by stock losses. apatheist, someone believing that God or gods exist but are not of any use. Craptacular!

By: Hildago

Hildago — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:46:31 -0800

Anyone else have "pet" words that they enjoy using, much to the bafflement of others? Sexcellent.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:06:35 -0800

pet words: a friend of mine liked "evanescent". it's weird looking back at their earlier entries and seeing words that were presumably new then: "politically correct"; "peace dividend"; "rollerblade"...

By: Succa

Succa — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:08:02 -0800

TiVo sounds too much like "teeve" (to steal).

By: shadow45

shadow45 — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:39:25 -0800

I still like using obfuscated.. and I'm really glad to see that blog did not win. I _hate_ that word, and for no particular reason other than needing some place to focus all my negativity. And banal retentive to describe people that talk incessantly about trite things.. wait a minute, i think i'm describing myself. oops, they found me out *hides*

By: shadow45

shadow45 — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:40:09 -0800

Oh, and Homer Simpson's sacrilicious is great too.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 19:28:01 -0800

"Ephemeral" (and "ephemera") are among my faves. And I once heard someone referring to the "Californication" of something and couldn't stop thinking how totally cool that word was.

By: vito90

vito90 — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 20:12:54 -0800

I'm partial to "bukkake"

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 20:16:43 -0800

I love defenestrate too. All time best word. For new coinages, I like "genericana" for that hideous section of mobil/exxon/burger king/shell/home depot/mcdonald's that surrounds and threatens to engulf every American city and town.

By: anildash

anildash — Mon, 20 Jan 2003 20:42:39 -0800

Please note that the ADS site's webmaster is MeFi's own Mo Nickels. Nice job, Grant.

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 00:06:49 -0800

Language should always grow. I use words now that were out of style long ago, and no one has a clue what they mean.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 00:08:59 -0800

rushmc's Current List of Neat Words affaissement, afflatus, akrasia, anaclitic, apoptosis, bloviate, bricolage, cafard, caliginous, dysergy, eleemosynary, eventuate, fideism, guolaosi, iatrogenic, invigilator, negentropic, noctilucent, otiosity, oxymorous, paleologos, parvenue, Pelagian, polyphagi, quiddity, Sehnsucht, Selbstdenker, synecdoche, thereanent, theriantropes, xerophobia

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 09:37:30 -0800

I dare you to use three of those in a single sentence.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 09:41:20 -0800

"Invigilator, negentropic, and noctilucent are all interesting words."

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 09:49:30 -0800

lol Pink

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 10:01:21 -0800

"Even in the darkened hall, the invigilator (perhaps with noctilucent eyes) was able to ferret out the cheaters to great negentropic effect." Ehhh. Someone else?

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 10:23:30 -0800

I challenge guolaosi and parvenue. Sample Google result for the first: "Chinese newspapers even have a term for it — guolaosi — meaning 'overwork death.' " It's a neat word, but it ain't English. And for the second: "United Airlines est parvenue à un accord avec le syndicat des mécaniciens." It's not even a particularly neat word; it just means 'arrived' (in the feminine). But I'll assume it's a typo for "parvenu," which is English. So: "The theriantropes bloviated endlessly about the American Werewolf in London, calling him a mere parvenu." --The Linguistic Invigilator

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 11:14:20 -0800

It's a neat word, but it ain't English. Anyone else have "pet" words that they enjoy using, much to the bafflement of others? I didn't see any limitations to English in that exhortation. Anyway, with enough use, it can become as English as "glasnost." As for your second challenge, I submit dictionary.com: parvenue adj 1: characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position [syn: nouveau-riche, parvenu, upstart(a)] 2: of or characteristic of a parvenu [syn: parvenu]

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 11:44:20 -0800

OK, you got me on "parvenue" (grumble mutter). I didn't see any limitations to English in that exhortation. Oh goody! OK, some of my favorites are bukvoed, pibe, chikusho, and qiguai.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 21 Jan 2003 13:48:56 -0800

Mmm...unfamiliar...somewhat exotic...but quite tasty!