The American Dialect Society has named “Google” the word of the decade. There are lots of words that have made the Society’s list and most of us can recognize at least some of them. However, there were a few that even a sophisticate such as myself had not heard of.
Tweet was the word of the year in 2009. I know that one.
Here’s the type folks who voted on the words of the year and the word of the decade. “The vote is the longest-running such vote anywhere, the only one not tied to commercial interests, and the word-of-the-year event up to which all others lead. It is fully informed by the members’ expertise in the study of words, but it is far from a solemn occasion. Members in the 120-year-old organization include linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, authors, editors, professors, university students, and independent scholars. In conducting the vote, they act in fun and do not pretend to be officially inducting words into the English language. Instead they are highlighting that language change is normal, ongoing, and entertaining.
I didn’t see any reference to a Real Texan being on the list of those selecting the 
words, but I’m not sure they would select anyone who would refer to the recent norther that blew through here recently as “bein’ real code outside.”
If the committee had approached any of my Real Texas friends, they would have heard the added descriptive phrases of how ‘code’ it really was including “it was ‘coder’ than a ……..well, you know.
So, most of us know what it means to ‘Google’ something and what a ‘Tweet’ is. Heck, even as backward as I am, I have over 1,000 Twitter followers and have become an avid user of Tweetdeck.
But what are some of the other words that made the list this year. And are any of those words in our common Real Texas vocabulary?
Here are some of the runner-up words:
-er – A suffix used in such words as birther, someone who questions whether Obama was born in the United States; deather, someone who believes the government has death panels in its healthcare reform plan; Tenther, someone who believes the Federal government is mostly illegal because it usurps rights which belong to the States, in violation of the 10th Amendment; and truther, someone who doubts the official account of the 9/11 attacks.
fail-A noun or interjection describing something egregiously unsuccessful. Usually used as an interjection:“FAIL!”
H1N1 – The virus that causes swine flu.
public option – A government-run healthcare insurance program, desired by some to be part of the country’s healthcare reform.
Dracula sneeze – Covering one’s mouth with the crook of one’s elbow when sneezing, seen as similar to popular portrayals of the vampire Dracula, in which he hides the lower half of his face with a cape. I like that one.
Here’s more that made the list of the top 20 or so:
- 9/11
- Blog
- Green
- Text
- War on Terror
- Wi-Fi
And here are a few more:
Botax – Obama’s plan to tax some beauty type treatments and surgeries.
Bragabond – Refers to a person who travels a lot and brags about it.
Kanye interruptus – Refers to the act of interupting someone else.
And there are also these: Octomom, birther, Salahi (refers to party crashers) death panel, sexting, teabagger, and most recently crotch bomber, underpants bomber, underwear bomber.
And they are numerous references to Tiger Woods that I probably should’t repeat here.
Even PETA tried to change a word this year to get us to refer to fish sticks as ‘sea kittens’ so they would be distasteful.
So there, you have a semi-formal list of the top words and phrases of the year.
Nowhere did I see a ‘fixin’ to” or a “goin’ to,” or “ridin”,”ropin”, or turn on the “lightbub”.
Some folks just tawk funny I guess.
I’m David out in Real Texas
Still tawkin Texan after all these years
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You know, there’s not one mention of “bob war” or “ahced tea” on there either. Or the phrase “meaner’n a boot fulluh bob war”
Git outa here! You forgot a bunch ob-em.
What about “useta-cood” as in, “I useta-cood do that before I broke my arm.”
And ‘toe sak’.
Then there’s ‘wrasslin’. Ya-kno, like I’m tired cuz I was out wrasslin a bear last night.
bob-war all tangl’d up in tha bar ditch…
I do like the article really much, was illuminating and the best part was that precisely the important part was elaborated,clear short and snappy related information constantly facilitates and retains readers running around digging for the info will never need a read again.