In today's New York Times, Grant Barrett, editorial director of the online dictionary Wordnik and curator of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, presents his top buzzwords and catchphrases of 2009, from aporkalypse to ununbium.
From the introduction by Times reporter Mark Leibovich:
If the year were a Government Motors car, it would be a clunker. There was so much distraction. Things like Great Recessions and mancessions will do that, distract you (like a Dracula sneeze). So will texting while driving, which is far more dangerous in the scheme of things than sexting (unless it’s sexting while driving), and maybe even hiking the Appalachian Trail. Whatever, it was a year when a lot of people acted stupidly.
I'm pleased to see several of my own choices (including birther, mancession, and meep) on Grant's list. But I'm even more tickled by the words I'd overlooked or hadn't even known about: Dracula sneeze? Drive like a Cullen? Warmist?
Comment on, or add to, the buzzword list here. And read about Grant Barrett's buzzwords of 2008 here.
Didn't the Teabaggers call themselves by that name, at least until someone clued them in on why all the Twitterers were tittering?
Posted by: Karen | December 20, 2009 at 12:30 PM
@Karen: That's the way I understand it, too; I included that story in my own Words of the Year post, under "Tea Party": http://bit.ly/5FOcio
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | December 20, 2009 at 12:51 PM