The American Dialect Society has released its Words of the Year for 2002 (yes, 2002, since they grant awards for the year just finished). Each year, they select words that recently have become trendy. The numbers you’ll see in parenthesis are votes; the word with the highest votes wins that category. Some of my favorites from this year’s list:
—Most euphemistic: regime change (38 votes). Other candidates: V card, slang term for virginity (14); newater, sewage water purified and recycled into the fresh water system (7); unorthodox entrepreneur, panhandler, prostitute, or drug dealer in a Vancouver park (4); Enronomics, fraudulent business and accounting practices (1); dirty bomb, conventional bomb laced with radioactive material (0). […]
And, related to that, Lake Superior State University released its 28th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. The list is spot-on in many cases, though it comes off a bit Andy Rooney-like at times.
Make No Mistake About It — Nominated by many, including Angela Wood of Anchorage, Alaska, for over-use since the 2000 election.
“Generally used instead of ‘don’t underestimate’ or ‘understand,’” says John O’Connell of San Jose, California. Are listeners really going to mistake what the questioner is saying?
“Who’s mistaken, anyway?” asks Barb Keller of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. […]
Thanks also to MetaFilter for its threads on the American Dialect Society’s Words of the Year and LSSU’s Banished Words.