Now’s the season for awards. In the new year, we’re bombarded with awards ceremonies to recognize the best of the year before. In the U.S., there are the Oscars for films, the Emmy’s for television, the Tony’s for Broadway, the Grammy’s for music, and so on. Yes, there’s a an award for everything, even for words! Well, not really an award, words don’t receive shiny statues, just some recognition.
In the U.S., there’s actually an organization called the American Dialect Society (ADS), which studies the English language. It’s actually been around since 1889. Members include professional academics and amateur language enthusiasts. For a fee, anyone can be a member of this society. Every year, they elect the word of the year. Members nominate their favourite word, and then the top choices are voted on. Essentially, a word’s candidature depends on its popularity without being overly abused, and its relevance during the year.
In homage [1] to the occupy protest movement, last year’s word of the year is…
occupy
Other candidates included humblebrag (an expression of false humility, especially by celebrities on Twitter*), FOMO (acronym for Fear of Missing Out, describes the anxiety of being inundated by information on social media*) and tablet (a lightweight portable computer with a touch screen to input data*). Previous winners include app (2010), tweet (2009) and bailout (2010).
If there’s a most popular word, logically, there must also be a most unpopular one. According to a New York poll, the most annoying word that came up in conversation last year was…
whatever [2]
This annoying word was followed by like, you know, just sayin’ and seriously. It appears that whatever has been the most infamous word three years in a row!
[1] homenaje, [2] lo que sea
* definitions quoted from the ADS webpage.
No comments:
Post a Comment