Like all of us, I have a routine in the mornings which
starts at 6:30ish with feeding Morgan and ends about 8ish with breakfast. After breakfast, I open up the laptop and
spend some time wandering around the internet, checking mail, facebook, the
weather, the google news feed, and so forth.
Today, while looking through all the newsy articles, I saw one that
stated Merriam-Webster had announced “The Word of the Year”. Wow – who knew there was a Word of the
Year. As it turns out, there are several
organizations and websites that offer a Word of the Year.
Merriam-Webster - 2017 - FEMINISM
1- the theory of the political,
economic, and social equality of the sexes; 2- organized activity on behalf of
women's rights and interests
So, I checked around to see what other Words there
were. Many and lots, let me tell
you.
From our long ago past, the Historical Dictionary of
American Slang offers ---
1500 - Geck An eccentric individual
1600 - Addlepate A stupid or foolish person.
1700 - Claptrap Nonsense.
1800 - Shoddyocracy
— people who get rich selling shoddy merchandise or services.
Then I found The American Dialect Society site (founded in 1889, ADS is dedicated to the
study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or
dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it).
Wowsy again – they not only have a Word of the Year, they
have words in various categories. Like
Most Useful
2011 - Humblebrag - an expression of false humility
Most Unnecessary
2008 - Moofing -
working on the go with a laptop and cell phone
Least Likely to
Succeed
2012 - Phablet -
mid-sized electronic device larger than a phone, smaller than a tablet
Then there was this –
"Trump"
has been named the children's 2017 "Word of the Year" by the Oxford
University Press. Use of the word
"Trump" has increased 839 percent. They analyzed over 100,000 short
stories written by British children for a competition, and have already
declared "Trump" to be the Children's Word of this Year. From those kids' imaginations emerged such
characters as Boggle Trump, Snozzle Trump, and Trumplestilskin.
Take care.
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