Friday, April 26, 2013

W is for Word of the Year, Decade, Century


Every year the American Dialect Society selects The Word of the Year
The word or phrase chosen is meant to be one that best reflects the language and preoccupations of the year gone by.

Here are the words of the past ten years:
     2012 hashtag
     2011 occupy
     2010 app
     2009 tweet
     2008 bailout
     2007 subprime
     2006  Plutoed
     2005 truthiness
     2004 red state, blue state, purple state

     Word of the decade  google
     Word of the 20th century jazz
     Word of the millennium she (See below)
Yes, she, the feminine pronoun. Before the year 1000, there was no she in English; just heo, which singular females had to share with plurals of all genders because it meant they as well. In the twelfth century, however, she appeared, and she has been with us ever since. She may derive from the Old English feminine demonstrative pronoun seo or sio, or from Viking invasions.

Have a suggestion for the word of 2013?



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