Monday, January 13, 2020

Words Of The Year :: American Dialect Society :: Collins :: Merriam Webster :: Oxford

Merriam-Webster’s Words of the Year 2019
Merriam Webster: 12.09.2019

Our Word of the Year for 2019 is they. It reflects a surprising fact: even a basic term—a personal pronoun—can rise to the top of our data. Although our lookups are often driven by events in the news, the dictionary is also a primary resource for information about language itself, and the shifting use of they has been the subject of increasing study and commentary in recent years. Lookups for they increased by 313% in 2019 over the previous year.

English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.

More recently, though, they has also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions between English speakers. There's no doubt that its use is established in the English language, which is why it was added to the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary this past September.

2 quid pro quo
(noun) “Something given or received for something else,” or "A deal arranging a quid pro quo.”

3 impeach
(verb) “To charge with a crime or misdemeanor” and “To cast doubt on.”

4 crawdad
(noun) Refers to the aquatic animal that looks like a small lobster and lives in rivers and streams—i.e. to what's also known as a crawfish or crayfish.

5 egregious
(adjective) Modern English: "Conspicuously bad;" Original meaning: "Distinguished" or "Eminent."

6 the
(definite article) Pronounced /ðə/ before words that begin with consonants ("the governor") and /ði:/ before words that begin with a vowel; /ði:/ can also indicate emphasis or suggest uniqueness (THE Ohio State University).

7 snitty
(adjective) Disagreeably ill-tempered.

8 tergiversation
(noun) “Evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement,” or “Desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith.”

9 camp
(noun) "A style or mode of personal or creative expression that is absurdly exaggerated and often fuses elements of high and popular culture" or "Something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing."

10 exculpate
(verb) To clear from alleged fault or guilt.

2019 Word of the Year is “(My) Pronouns,”
Word of the Decade is Singular “They”

In its 30th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted for “(my) pronouns” as its Word of the Year (2019) and singular “they” as its Word of the Decade (2010-2019).

“(My) pronouns” was recognized for its use as an introduction for sharing one’s et of personal pronouns (as in “pronouns: she/her”), while singular “they” was recognized for its growing use to refer to a known person whose gender identity is nonbinary. Singular “they” was previously selected by the ADS as the 2015 Word of the Year.

WORD OF THE YEAR (2019)
* (my) pronouns: introduction for sharing one’s set of personal pronouns (“pronouns: she/her”) 161
ok boomer: retort to someone older expressing out-of-touch or condescending views 88
cancel: withdraw support from someone considered problematic or unacceptable 10
Karen: stereotype of a complaining, self-important white woman, typically a member of Generation X (also “Generation Karen”) 34

WORD OF THE DECADE (2010-2019)
POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR
MOST USEFUL/MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
SLANG/INFORMAL WORD OF THE YEAR
MOST CREATIVE
EUPHEMISM OF THE YEAR
DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEAR


The Collins Word Of The Year 2019 Is... CLIMATE STRIKE

Climate strike has been announced as the Collins Word of the Year 2019.

climate strike (ˈklaɪmɪt ˌstraɪk) noun: a form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change.

Discover the rest of the words in this year’s shortlist.

bopo (ˈbəʊpəʊ) noun also spelt BoPo: a movement advocating the view that people should be proud of the appearance of their bodies, or any aspect of this, especially size

cancel (ˈkænsəl) verb: to publicly cease to acknowledge a person, organization, etc, esp on social media, in order to express disapproval of their activities or opinions

deepfake (ˈdiːpˌfeɪk) noun, verb: (noun) a technique by which a digital image or video can be superimposed onto another, which maintains the appearance of an unedited image or video; (verb) to superimpose one digital image or video onto another so that it maintains the appearance of an unedited image or video

double down (ˈdʌbəl daʊn) phrasal verb: to reinforce one’s commitment to a venture or idea in spite of opposition or risk

entryist (ˈɛntrɪɪst) noun, adjective: (noun) a person who joins an existing political party with the intention of changing its principles and policies; (adjective) relating to the practice of joining an existing political party with the intention of changing its principles and policies

hopepunk (ˈhəʊpˌpʌŋk) noun: a literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity

influencer (ˈɪnflʊənsə) noun: a person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to his or her followers

nonbinary (ˌnɒnˈbaɪnərɪ) adjective. Also spelt non-binary: relating to a gender or sexual identity that does not conform to the binary categories of male or female, heterosexual or homosexual

rewilding (riːˈwaɪldɪŋ) noun: the practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there

The Collins Word Of The Year 2019 Is... CLIMATE STRIKE
Languages OUP: Nov 2019

The Oxford Word of the Year is a word or expression shown through usage evidence to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.

Climate emergency is defined as ‘a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.’



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