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The word of the year
That's from Oxford. Runners-up were moofer and topless meeting.
The first two sound British to me and all three sound silly. I would have picked "Tweet."
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 11, 2008 at 04:41 PM in Data Source | Permalink
Comments
"Moof" is always and forever the call of Clarus the DogCow. Which makes "moofer" strangely appropriate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogcow
Posted by: Tony at Nov 11, 2008 5:04:05 PM
All three of those words are far more irritating than the ten irritating phrases.
Posted by: Mike at Nov 11, 2008 5:05:14 PM
I agree with 'Tweet' - although I would have liked to have opted for 'Obamanomics' if there was a definitive definition of the term...
If the selection is wide enough to encorporate the expansion of definitions, rather than 'just' the invention of new words, then 'crunch', 'bailout' & 'friend' (as in 'to friend', rather than 'a friend'/'my friend' etc.) must be contenders.
PS I agree the three mentioned are silly, and I'm British & had never heard of any of them.
Word or phrase to remove from the popular lexicon? 'Hanging chad' - good riddance.
Best new *phrase* of the year? Unquestionably 'cheddar gorilla' made me chuckle.
Posted by: nick at Nov 11, 2008 5:22:53 PM
I am greatly disappointed by the content of the link for "topless meeting."
Posted by: Paul Gowder at Nov 11, 2008 5:30:10 PM
although a suitable word _is_ needed, moofer appears to be a Microsoft/PR effort that hasn't really caught on
Posted by: Stu Rob at Nov 11, 2008 5:55:36 PM
I got way too much of a kick out of the DogCow in the 80s ... MoooooF!!!
Posted by: odograph at Nov 11, 2008 6:16:22 PM
Tweet is very last year, Tyler. You are just so old sometimes. Frankly, I think this was the year of pwnage. Certainly after the recent extinction event, most American taxpayer feel deeply pwned.
Posted by: StreetWalker at Nov 11, 2008 6:44:54 PM
Yeah, "tweet" doesn't sound silly at all.
Posted by: Jim at Nov 11, 2008 6:49:19 PM
The year of pwnage...that is at least a half decade old, if not more and you call out Tyler for Tweet?
Posted by: scott at Nov 11, 2008 8:55:58 PM
