Take a break from holiday shopping to vote for Merriam-Webster's word of the year (WOTY). The 20 nominated words -- "culled from frequent hits to Merriam-Webster OnLine and some popular submissions to Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary" -- are:
- apathetic
- babymoon
- blamestorm
- charlatan
- conundrum
- cruft
- eleemosynary
- hypocrite
- linkability
- melancholy
- Pecksniffian
- pretentious
- pugnacious
- quixotic
- sardoodledom
- sputum
- subpoena
- vanity sizing
- w00t [those are zeros, not O's]
On the M-W site you can click on each word to read its definition, but I'd have appreciated a little context as well. Why did Pecksniffian, sardoodledom, and quixotic--three wonderful eponyms--make this year's list? Subpoenas are in the news every year; why is subpoena a 2007 WOTY candidate? And wot's up with w00t--any clues, readers?
My vote goes to babymoon, a travel-industry term defined as "a short vacation for a couple before the birth of their child." The Doubletongued Dictionary has antedated the word to 1995, when childbirth educator and author Sheila Kitzinger claims to have coined it, but it went truly mainstream this year with a May 13 New York Times article.
Away With Words readers will recognize cruft as the noun form of this week's Word of the Week.
Last year's M-W WOTY was truthiness.
Update: Forgot to mention that the deadline for voting is Friday, Dec. 7.
(Via Language and Humor Blog.)
I have long had an irrational passion for the word "eleemosynary" and voted accordingly.
Posted by: Jessica | November 30, 2007 at 01:52 PM
Where's U-Tube?
Posted by: Mary | December 06, 2007 at 10:00 AM