Christmas decorations in shops on Veterans' Day. Presidential primaries in January. And now, with two calendar leaves still remaining, we have the first announcements of the 2007 word of the year (WOTY).
The New Oxford American Dictionary, one of the more influential voices in the wordosphere, has just declared the 2007 WOTY to be locavore. Coined from "local" and "-vore" (from Latin vorare: to devour or swallow) , "locavore" describes a person who opts for food grown close to home--or even in the backyard. The word was coined by two years ago by four San Francisco women who defined "local" as "within a 100-mile radius."
Check out the Oxford University Press blog for more on "locavore" and to see the runners-up, which include several words that have appeared in Away With Words during 2007.
P.S. Webster's New World College Dictionary really jumped the gun on WOTY announcements. It bestowed its own award in late October to "grass station": a filling station of the future that will allow vehicles to pump ethanol and other fuels derived from biomass--a k a grass. I'd heard of "locavore," but never "grass station."
"Locavore" is a terrible word. "Eat local" sounds fine, but this coinage grates. Am I the only one who thinks it's too clunky?
Posted by: Orange | November 13, 2007 at 03:33 PM
Orange--I'm not crazy about it either. However, I was very interested in the explanation given by one of the coiners: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005109.html#more
...especially the "loca" = "crazy" association!
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | November 13, 2007 at 03:48 PM