Word of the Year
The Word of the Year is chosen annually by Merriam-Webster as the word that was most often looked up at its online dictionary. In 2004 the Word of the Year was blog and in 2003 it was democracy.
The American Dialect Society (ADS) also selects a Word (or Words, in case of a tie) of the Year by a highly informal process each January. 2004's winner was:
red state, blue state, purple state, n., together, a representation of the American political map
Past ADS Words of the Year
- 2003: metrosexual
- 2002: weapons of mass destruction, WMD
- 2001: 9-11 and equivalents
- 2000: chad (as made famous by the U.S. presidential election, 2000)
- 1999: Y2K
- 1998: e- (electronic)
- 1997: millennium bug
- 1996: mom (as in soccer mom)
- 1995: World-Wide Web and equivalents, newt (to act aggressively as a newcomer)
- 1994: cyber, morph (to change form)
- 1993: Information Superhighway
- 1992: Not! (as popularized by Wayne's World)
- 1991: Mother of All (the greatest)
- 1990: Bushlips (insincere political rhetoric)
In 2000 the society also selected a word of the decade (web), a word of the century (jazz), and a word of the millennium (she, which first appeared in English in the twelfth century).
External Links
The American Dialect Society's pages on previous word-of-the-year votes
Slate article by Jesse Sheidlower on the ADS's words of the year.
Merriam-Webster's top 10 words of the year for 2004