Being the determined young scholar that I am, I am taking a full load of courses this summer. One of those classes, English 370, is a required course for the Creative Writing program I am enrolled in. I have been putting off the class and thought that the six-week summer session would be the prime opportunity to get it out of the way. The title of the course is “Introduction to Language” and is, as you may have guessed, a linguistics class. It’s been only mildly interesting to me as far as required college courses are concerned… that is, until today. In the last fifteen minutes of class this morning the instructor shared with us the American Dialect Association’s 2006 Words of the Year, which I found to be thoroughly fascinating. These words are “new” words that, according to the association, have developed in the past year. Some of them are just wonderful. A few of my favorites:
Word of the Year WINNER: to pluto/be plutoed – to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet
Most Useful WINNER: climate canary – an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastophe on the horizon
Most Creative WINNER: lactard – a person who is lactose-intolerant
Most Creative FINALIST: Fed-Ex – nickname for K-Fed, a.k.a. Kevin Federline, soon-to-be ex-husband of Britney Spears
Most Unnecessary FINALIST: Fox lips – lips colored and lined with makeup to seem more prominent, said of female anchors on Fox News
Most Euhpemistic FINALIST: lancing – the forced public outing of a closted gay celebrity, after ‘N Sync singer Lance Bass
A few other highlights: murse, firecrotch, macaca, tramp stamp, sudden jihad syndrome, the decider, manmaries, and, of course, pwn. Real words, folks. No kidding. The authorities have spoken. Check it out: http://www.americandialect.org/Word-of-the-Year_2006.pdf
