It has been a Subprime year

January 5, 2008 6:47 PM

“Subprime” voted 2007 word of the year by the American Dialect Society. Disagree? You had your chance to submit your own nominees, thanks to mo nickels on MeFi Projects. Pre vi ous ly

Other nominees (pdf!) include...
bacn "..nearly as annoying as spam but which one has chosen to receive."
celebu- prefix
connectile dysfunction
exploding ARM
global weirding
Googlegänger
green- prefix
left of boom/right of boom
lolcat
nappy-headed ho
NINJA "No Income, No Job or Assets"
tapafication "...to serve food in many small portions."
truther
vajayjay
vegansexual
wide stance
wrap rage "...frustration of trying to open a factory-sealed purchase."

and from the Least Likely to Succeed category:
Billary
earmarxist
quadriboobage "...appearance of having four breasts caused by wearing a brassiere that is too small."
strand-in "...protest duplicating being stranded inside an airplane"
strike beard (Hey! I like Strike Beard! I have a Strike Beard!)

posted by wendell (20 comments total)

Why didn't restless leg syndrome and head-on make it?
posted by odinsdream at 7:30 PM on January 5, 2008

In conducting the vote, they act in fun and do not pretend to be officially inducting words into the English language.

Whereas, at all other times, they're serious, and do pretend to officially induct words into the English language.
posted by not_on_display at 7:38 PM on January 5, 2008

most excellent choice for 2007. (beats w00t hands down.)
posted by mrgrimm at 7:42 PM on January 5, 2008

Fun post. Cool neologisms. Adding to the list:
lulz, lolz, USian, Googlestalking, srsly, pwnt, oh hai

Verbotomy's fun.

wow, so there are vegansexuals? huh, Thought that was a Hindu thing.
exploding arm.
posted by nickyskye at 7:46 PM on January 5, 2008

ooh ooh, found this fun site to add here, an Indian American neologisms site, Word Mint.
posted by nickyskye at 7:54 PM on January 5, 2008

When I was a kid, I submitted a bunch of Sniglets to Rich Hall. I never heard back from him. I still don't have a word for how that made me feel.
posted by not_on_display at 8:02 PM on January 5, 2008 [3 favorites]

Man, anything about 2007 is so 7 days ago.
posted by Effigy2000 at 8:05 PM on January 5, 2008

it's only 6 days, EffigyEightYearsAgo.
posted by wendell at 8:07 PM on January 5, 2008

notondispligletdown
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:10 PM on January 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

sniglot_on_dismayed
Thanks... I feel a weight suddenly lifted
posted by not_on_display at 8:52 PM on January 5, 2008

I submitted mine, but it got hedged out by the late addition of "Optimus Prime" in a collateralized-lexicography-swap (exotic linguistic security). Curse you, Michael Bay.
posted by spiderwire at 8:55 PM on January 5, 2008

I still think sarchasm should've gotten more widespread recognition.
posted by Phire at 9:01 PM on January 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Man wendell two post about the subprime in less than two days; does the subprime got you down man? I know it's got me kinda worried, working in construction and all.
posted by nola at 9:03 PM on January 5, 2008

ooh sarchasm. hmm. snarkgasm.
posted by nickyskye at 9:22 PM on January 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

The term "make it rain" in reference to throwing paper money in the air at a club was a new one on me. But it should be noted that Abbie Hoffman did something like this more than 40 years ago.
posted by Tube at 9:23 PM on January 5, 2008

tapafication "...to serve food in many small portions."

Metafication: "to serve snark in many small portions."
posted by Tube at 9:28 PM on January 5, 2008

Pure coincidence. I don't even have a rat in this race. I rent and my landlord is stable, sensible and pretty cool, unlike much of the real estate market. I'd have posted the Word of the Year whether it was "bacn", "lolcat", "strike beard", "vajayjay" or even "wrap rage". Well, maybe not ifit was "quadriboobage".
posted by wendell at 9:30 PM on January 5, 2008

I'm glad that Subprime has finally won something.
All its life it's been told "Subprime, you're really not that great." And here it is, the winner!
posted by Anisoptera at 11:28 PM on January 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

lulz is 06 but I believe lulzy is 07.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:02 AM on January 6, 2008

I'm just thankful that my Googlegänger shows no quadriboobage.
posted by lukemeister at 6:35 AM on January 6, 2008