I can't believe quonsar didn't win.

January 7, 2006 8:38 PM

The American Dialect Society has announced the 2005 word of the year. Sadly, muffin top, crotchfruit, Cruizasy (PDF file), and the obviously wonderful popesquatting were big old losers.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies (36 comments total)

Steven Colbert is a genious, and this is awesome.
posted by parallax7d at 8:40 PM on January 7, 2006

"I can't prove it, but I can say it."
posted by brundlefly at 8:42 PM on January 7, 2006

I love these lists. It's one of the best parts of the new year.
posted by mystyk at 9:21 PM on January 7, 2006

I would have hoped that one of my personal favorite new words, shambolic - sham symbolism, would have garnered an honorable mention. But alas, such was not to be.
posted by fenriq at 9:22 PM on January 7, 2006

Didn't Colbert also coin the similar "factesque"?
posted by LooseFilter at 9:33 PM on January 7, 2006

Not before fundagelical.
posted by mystyk at 9:34 PM on January 7, 2006

I would have hoped that one of my personal favorite new words, shambolic - sham symbolism

Shambolic isn't new, and doesn't mean that!

Eric Idle used the word "shambolic" in 1982's Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. In the Dead Bishop Sketch, many things went wrong -- mikes not working well, wigs flying off, etc -- and at the end Eric Idle stepped up and said "I never wanted to be in that shambolic sketch," as in "like a shambles."

Presumably Mr. Idle did not invent the word for that occasion.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:51 PM on January 7, 2006

pajamahudeen! Sign me up.

You shall not "know" the truthy, and the truthy shall not set you free!
posted by Oyéah at 10:15 PM on January 7, 2006

Wasn't that the same headline over at Fark?
posted by drstein at 10:57 PM on January 7, 2006

ROU, quit being a shambecile! Nah, just kidding. I wasn't aware that its an old word. Thanks for the lesson. Maybe I'll just qualify my statement by saying its a new word to me.
posted by fenriq at 11:00 PM on January 7, 2006

It would be funnier if Colbert hadn't been the one who "coined" it...he's the only person on TV who is LESS funny than Jon Stewart.
posted by davidmsc at 11:01 PM on January 7, 2006

davidmsc writes "It would be funnier if Colbert hadn't been the one who 'coined' it...he's the only person on TV who is LESS funny than Jon Stewart."

Uh, huh. I got no problem with you not liking the Daily Show guys, but do you live in the same universe where Larry the Cable Guy is a millionaire?
posted by brundlefly at 11:05 PM on January 7, 2006

I have always deplored muffin-tops, but I'm happy the term has been coined.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:11 PM on January 7, 2006

You must be confused, davidmsc. Here. Let's watch some TV.

sits davidmsc in front of The King Of Queens

Anything you want to take back, hmm?

sits davidmsc in front of Dharma And Greg>

So, er, anything yet?

sits davidmsc in front of Everybody Loves Raymond?

Anything? No? Hmm? Anything at all?
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:04 AM on January 8, 2006

What, not even a mention for --
cheney vt fuck, engage in coitus with ("Go cheney yourself!")
posted by rob511 at 12:08 AM on January 8, 2006

Jeez...point taken, guys. You know, thinking about all of those shows sure made me nostalgic for the Glory Days of The Simpsons, The Critic, Seinfeld, and Duckman.

Duckman...now THERE was a funny guy. Er, duck.
posted by davidmsc at 12:08 AM on January 8, 2006

"I've got to go. The Brady Bunch is on, and, without naming names, I find four of those kids very appealing!"

Man, I miss Duckman.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:23 AM on January 8, 2006

I was under the impression that "shambolic" was an attribute referring to the movements of (Romero era) Zombies. Shaun Of The Dead backs me up on that one, I believe.
posted by redsparkler at 1:22 AM on January 8, 2006

Shambolic:

1. Chaotic
2. An artificial testicle
posted by PeterMcDermott at 3:57 AM on January 8, 2006

sits davidmsc in front of Everybody Loves Raymond?

Hey, wait a minute. The first two examples were dead-on, but Raymond actually is funny.
posted by pmurray63 at 5:30 AM on January 8, 2006

Eric Idle used the word "shambolic" in 1982's Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl

It's considerably older than that. The OED's earliest cite is from 1970, but they add: "Reported to be ‘in common use’ in 1958."

On "truthiness," see Benjamin Zimmer's Language Log post (with update links at end).
posted by languagehat at 5:57 AM on January 8, 2006

I dunno, I thought King of Queens is OK, I've only seen like one or two eppisodes.

Now Arrested Development. There's a crappy show.

/ducks.
posted by delmoi at 6:04 AM on January 8, 2006

Your favorite television show only proves what a complete imbecile you are.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:59 AM on January 8, 2006

What, no grippy?
posted by macadamiaranch at 7:31 AM on January 8, 2006

Maybe Bush's legacy will be: "Heck of a Job"
posted by cedar key at 8:26 AM on January 8, 2006

Cartyr - Islamic fundamentalist suicide (car) bomber. Obviously Car + Martyr.

I blurted it out while watching the news with my gf (and I know it's in bad taste).
posted by Devils Slide at 8:27 AM on January 8, 2006

E.L.Raymond is a comedy?

All along I thought it was a cop-forensic-drama.
posted by signal at 8:30 AM on January 8, 2006

"I've swallowed 20 condoms full of truth and I'm smuggling them across the border!"

Colbert is great. However, once you notice his right ear is somewhat, er, mangled, it will become incredibly distracting!

You're welcome.
posted by luser at 8:52 AM on January 8, 2006

I'd rather gargle thumbtacks than watch the utterly unfunny Everybody Loves Raymond. It is the lamest, most pathetic comedy show I've ever flipped right past with my remote.

The show's made for old people who can't take real humor anymore so they do canned humor because its safer for them.

The definition of not cool in anyway is if you watch the show and find the jokes funny. They are not.

Thank you, that is all.

At least, scambolic's my word!
posted by fenriq at 9:37 AM on January 8, 2006

George Bush: great president or Greatest President?
posted by bephillips at 9:38 AM on January 8, 2006

"...once you notice his right ear is somewhat, er, mangled, it will become incredibly distracting..."

We (my wife and I) noticed it early on in his run on The Daily Show and it still make us cringe.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:51 AM on January 8, 2006

a) This report is very badly organized and layed out. Difficult to read, difficult to understand the methodologies used... ick.

b) Looking at the past winners ( WMD, 9/11, red states/blue states, etc) it's kind of sad that "Katrina" (which is a truly important word this year) was beaten by "truthiness" (which is a joke word, even if coined to reflect current political realities, is poorly defined, and is really only known widely by Cobert & Daily Show fans.)
posted by ab3 at 11:57 AM on January 8, 2006

The German word of 2005: Bundeskanzlerin.
posted by muckster at 12:19 PM on January 8, 2006

Shambolic (from the oxford english dictionary)

Chaotic, disorderly, undisciplined.

Reported to be ‘in common use’ in 1958.
1970 Times 18 June 9 His office in Printing House Square is so impeccably tidy that it is..a standing reproach to the standard image of shambolic newspaper offices. 1975 Times 14 June 8/5 The average listener is in the position of anybody who encounters an organization at work for the first time. It may appear shambolic but how much is that because he hasn't yet made sense of it. 1978 R. JANSSON News Caper xiii. 110 We may have a shambolic landing, Jean. I want you to go right through the aircraft reminding people about the emergency drill. 1980 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts July 509/1 It will continue in a much more shambolic manner than the urbanization that has occurred in the Western World.
posted by gagglezoomer at 3:02 PM on January 8, 2006

I appreciated the Bumper Nutz nomination if only for the fact that it finally confirmed what I thought I saw under a pickup truck while visiting my parents in rural, northern Wisconsin.

(Bumper Nutz: fake testicles hung from the rear end of a vehicle.)
posted by corranhorn at 3:05 PM on January 8, 2006

New Yorker:

Colbert is forty-one, a native of South Carolina, one of eleven children, the father of three, a suburban guy, and deaf in one ear. “I had this weird tumor as a kid, and they scooped it out with a melon baller.”

posted by pracowity at 5:35 PM on January 8, 2006