2007 Words of the Year

4 January 2008

It seems that every dictionary, linguistic web site, and philological organization must have a word of the year. Why should Wordorigins.org be any different?

Later this week the American Dialect Society will select its word of the year, so until then here are my suggestions for 2007 words of the year. These are words that are characteristic of broad trends or significant events of the year. The choice is subjective and many other words and phrases are undoubtedly equally deserving. I have not tried to pick a single word as the word of the year; instead, I present a list of representative words in alphabetical order.

Many of my choices are inspired by the suggestions of Wayne Glowka, Grant Barrett, and David Barnhart. 

astronaut diaper, n., officially known as a maximum absorption garment, or MAG, a garment worn by NASA astronauts during launch, spacewalks, or anytime a spacesuit is worn for extended periods to collect urine and feces. The term came to the public’s attention on 5 February 2007 when astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in Orlando, Florida for attempted kidnapping and battery of a rival for the affections of her ex-lover. News reports claimed that Nowak had worn such diapers on her drive from Houston to Orlando so she would not have to make rest stops. Nowak later claimed that this detail was not true, but it had already become prime fodder for the late-night comedians.

atheism, n., disbelief or denial that a God or gods exist. The word is far from new, with cites in the OED dating to the 16th century, but 2007 saw a marked rise in political and social activism by atheists in the United States. The rise was sparked by the publication of several bestselling books critical of religion: Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great (May 2007); Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell (Feb 2007); Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion (Sep 2006); and Sam Harris’s Letter to a Christian Nation (Sep 2006).

brick, v., to render an electronic device, esp. an iPhone, inoperable, to metaphorically turn it into a brick. Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007 and the devices went on sale on 29 June. In the US, the iPhone is limited to use on the AT&T/Cingular phone network. On 14 August, the first of many hacks to bypass the Apple/AT&T SIM locking and enable the phone for use on other mobile networks was released on the Internet. On 27 September Apple released a software update for the phones which disabled, or bricked, phones that had been hacked.

bubble, n., a rapid and substantial rise in the value of a commercial asset due to irrational expectation that the price will continue to rise. This sense dates to the 17th century, but was particularly notable in 2007 for the US housing bubble which burst and the Web 2.0 bubble which was expected to (and may yet do so in 2008).

carbon neutral, adj., characteristic of having a net zero release of carbon into the atmosphere, sequestering an amount of carbon equal to that released into the air. 2007 finally saw political consensus in the United States acknowledge that anthropogenic global warming was indeed a problem.

colony collapse disorder, n., also CCD, a disease of unknown origin that has destroyed a significant percentage of the US honeybee population, driven up the price of agricultural produce, and threatens the American food supply. CCD was first identified in late 2006 and has continued through 2007. Apiaries in some 24 states and in portions of Canada have been affected by CCD. The phenomenon has also been reported in Europe, albeit to a lesser extent. Losses to CCD have topped 50% of the colonies in some regions, compared to a typical winter loss rate of 15-25%.

congestion pricing, n., a policy of charging more for a good or service during periods of heavy use, in particular, the charging of fees for automobile use in urban areas to reduce pollution and encourage use of mass transit. It is not a new idea, having been proposed as early as 1952 by economist William Vickrey for the New York subway system, but it has been implemented for traffic in central London and on 22 April 2007 (Earth Day) Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed its use to limit traffic in Manhattan. The New York State Legislature, which has to approve such a scheme, killed the proposal in July.

enhanced interrogation techniques, n.phr., euphemism for torture and for interrogation techniques that occupy the gray area at the edges of torture. 2007 saw much political controversy over the use of such techniques by US intelligence agencies. Cf. waterboarding.

forever stamp, n., also no-value indicator or NVI stamp, a first-class postage stamp that can be used into the future without additional postage to account for price increases. Such stamps have been in use in the UK since 1989 and by the US Postal Service since 1998 for special fundraising stamps, such as the Breast Cancer Research Stamp, where a portion of the proceeds go toward the charitable cause. But the first such regular stamp was issued by the USPS on 12 April 2007. Instead of bearing a denomination, the stamps carry the words, “USA First-Class Postage Forever.”

General Betray Us, prop.n., pejorative moniker for General David Petraeus, the US Commander in Iraq, coined by Moveon.org in a New York Times ad run on 10 September 2007. The ad created a firestorm of controversy.

left/right of boom, adj., a US military slang expression to categorize actions taken in response to insurgent bombings in Iraq. Left of boom refers to preventive actions, because they occur before such and attack, to the left on a graphical representation on a timeline. Right of boom refers to actions to find and kill the bombers and to treat the wounded.

lolcat, n., an internet photograph of an animal, usually a cat, that is given a humorous and ungrammatical caption, supposedly representing the cat’s speech, from lol (laughing out loud) + cat. The first lolcats, also known as cat macros, appeared as early as 2005. But the website icanhascheezburger.com launched on 11 January 2007 with the image of a cat asking for a cheeseburger. The website became immensely popular.

nappy-headed ho, n.phr., racial slur uttered by radio host Don Imus on 4 April 2007 in reference to the Rutgers women’s basketball team. The controversy that followed resulted in Imus being fired (he returned to the air in late 2007 on another radio network) and sparked a debate on race and gender issues in America.

subprime, adj., financial term used to describe a loan to a person with a high credit risk and carrying a high rate of interest. Due to the large numbers of subprime mortgages issued in recent years, the 2007 drop in the housing market resulted in increased rates of foreclosure and large-scale losses by hedge funds and large banks who had invested heavily in the mortgages as investments.

surge, the, n., the increase in US troop strength in Iraq beginning in January 2007. This past year was the bloodiest yet for the United States in Iraq, with 901 troops killed in action during the year. But as a result of a combination of factors, including the increased number of US troops, by year’s end the violence had been significantly curtailed and US casualties fell each month from their peak in May 2007.

tase, v., to use an electroshock weapon on a person, from the brand name Taser, one such weapon. On 17 September 2007 at the University of Florida event featuring Senator John Kerry as a speaker, student Andrew Meyer was removed from a speech by University police after insisting that he be given a chance to ask a question of Kerry. The police used a taser on Meyer and Meyer uttered the phrase, “don’t tase me, bro!” The incident was recorded by numerous video cameras, including Meyer’s, as he had handed it to another attendee as the police approached and asked her to record the incident. The video became an internet sensation.

waterboarding, n., an interrogation technique where the victim is nearly drowned, stopping just short of death. Allegations that US intelligence officers engaged in the technique reached a crescendo of political turmoil in 2007. It is not known for certain if the US government used the technique directly, although CIA agents were present at interrogations where waterboarding was performed by foreign intelligence agencies. Cf. enhanced interrogation techniques.

wide stance, to have a, v.phr., to be hypocritical or to express two conflicting points of view. On 11 June 2007, Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) was arrested for lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis airport. The arresting officer said that Craig had signaled the desire for sexual contact with, but Craig claimed the officer was in error and that he simply “had a wide stance” when using the toilet. Craig pleaded guilty to the charge, although he subsequently attempted, unsuccessfully, to withdraw the guilty plea. News of the arrest was revealed on 27 August and Craig, who in the past had been vigorously opposed to gay rights legislation, initially indicated that he would resign his Senate seat, but then recanted this and has remained in the Senate. The Craig scandal was the highest profile example in a string of corruption and sexual scandals that plagued the Republican Party throughout 2007.

2007 Holiday Gift List for the Logophile in Your Life

9 December 2007

Here are some ideas for books that word lovers will appreciate. Prices are list prices; you can find most of these at a discount.

Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, edited by Jeff Prucher. An excellent resource for words from one of the most inventive of literary genres. $29.95.

Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language, by Seth Lerer. Stanford English professor Seth Lerer has produced this excellent history of English. Each chapter covers a different topic in this history. Essentially, it’s a collection of chronologically organized essays on the development of our language. Lerer puts the changes in context, not just giving a recitation of what happened, but showing why it was important through literary examples. Engaging and never dull. $24.95.

Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences, by Kitty Burns Florey. Admit it. Secretly you just loved those 8th grade exercises where you deconstructed sentences. Sure, all your friends complained and you probably did to, but that’s only because you were too afraid to buck peer pressure. And if you’re in the younger crowd that never had sentence diagramming in class, it’s an extremely valuable tool for producing good writing. A funny, charming take on the subject that is usually presented in dreadfully dull fashion. $19.95.

Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer’s Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia, by Charles Hodgson. Podcaster Hodgson (http://www.podictionary.com) has compiled this dictionary of anatomical terms. $14.95.

The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Okay, it’s a textbook, but that doesn’t make it great. This standard anthology of English literature comes in two volumes. Volume 1 covers the period from Anglo-Saxon England through the 18th century. Volume 2 covers the Romantic period through the 20th century. Each volume is $60.

And of course, if you haven’t already bought copies for all your friends, there’s…

Word Myths, by David Wilton. Word Myths debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words. In addition, it explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time and time again. $23.95.

How The Irish Didn’t Invent Slang

9 November 2007

Grant Barrett over at The Lexicographer’s Rules has an excellent and devastating review of Daniel Cassidy’s book How the Irish Invented Slang. I haven’t read the book (nor do I intend to), but I have encountered Cassidy’s work in the past. He is the epitome of bad scholarship and gives valuable lessons in exactly how not to conduct an intellectual inquiry.

The proximate cause for Grant’s review is a credulous article published in The New York Times that failed to ask anyone else in the field whether there was any merit to Cassidy’s work. Had the reporter done, or the editor insisted on, some basic research, then it would have become readily apparent that Cassidy is a crank. We expect better from the “paper of record.” If there is a reason that old, mainline media will be killed by bloggers and the internet, it’s articles like these. The advantage that newspapers have is their editorial staff and systems of review and fact checking. But if newspapers fail to take advantage of their strengths, then they will certainly die a swift and well-deserved death.

If you’re thinking about buying the book, read Grant’s review first.

Language Podcasts

7 November 2007

Podcasting is new medium of sorts and there are several podcasts about language that are worth taking a look at. I say, “of sorts,” because at its heart podcasting isn’t much different from radio. The method of transmission is different and the barrier to entry has been significantly lowered—enabling almost anyone to create their own podcasts—but it’s still just an aural communication medium.

The following are some language-oriented podcasts that you should check out. All are free and all are available via iTunes, as well as separately through their websites.

The first is A Way With Words, by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett. This is, in fact, a radio show on KPBS in San Diego that is made available over the web. The hour-long show is produced weekly. Martha and Grant take caller questions about words and language and there are regular features with puzzles and quizzes. Professionally done, this show has very high production values and is extremely engaging and entertaining. It was threatened with cancellation due to public radio budget cuts earlier in the year, but that scare has passed and new shows should start appearing soon.

Another is Podictionary by Charles Hodgson. A daily show, usually under five minutes, it is also available in a longer, weekly wrap-up that contains all the shows for that week. Each episode features a word, with Hodgson discussing its history and usage. A great, daily, quick language fix.

A third show worth looking into is The Word Nerds, by brothers Dave and Howard Shepherd and Howard Chang, secondary school teachers all. This one appears every three weeks or so and runs about 45 minutes. Each episode is a discussion centered on a particular linguistic theme. Recent themes have included nicknames, public speaking, and small talk.

Old English Alphabet

30 September 2007

One of the daunting things about looking at Old English text is the alphabet. It has, to the modern English speaker, some odd characters. These put people off, although they are not difficult to master. Less obvious is the fact that some modern letters are absent from Old English texts.

Modern versions of Old English texts frequently add diacritical marks, usually as an aid in pronunciation (or, more accurately, an aid in how the transcriber thinks the words were pronounced). These do not exist in the original texts and can usually be ignored.

The first of these unfamiliar letters is Þ, þ. This is the letter known as thorn. It has a /th/ sound and can be pronounced as a voiceless interdental fricative, as in thick or as a voiced dental fricative, as in the. Thorn originated in the Old English runic alphabet known as futhorc and survived the transition to the Latin alphabet. Thorn continues to be used well into the Middle English period. In later use the letter often lost its ascender, coming to look much like the letter wynn (see below) or the letter Y. This survives in the pseudo-archaic usage “ye olde…”, which in the modern alphabet should really be written “the old.”

The second of these letters is Ð, ð. This is the letter known as eth. In Old English it is used interchangeably with thorn; a word written with a thorn will be written with an eth somewhere else on the page. This bears repeating; eth and thorn are completely interchangeable and there is no rhyme or reason behind the choice in any given instance. Like thorn, eth lasted into the Middle English period, but faded from use faster. Eth is largely gone from manuscripts by 1300.

Many modern versions of Old English texts will replace both thorn and eth with the letters th, as an aid to modern readers. On this site, we use both thorn and eth and do not use th to represent them.

In Old English glossaries, words that begin with thorn and eth are grouped together and placed after words beginning with T. Typically the glossarist will choose either thorn or eth and use that letter for both.

Another letter borrowed from the runic alphabet is wynn. Wynn is pronounced as /w/. The earliest Old English writings use the digraph uu to represent this sound, but soon the runic wynn came to replace that digraph. Wynn was used throughout the Old English period, fading with the advent of Middle English and largely gone by 1300. It was replaced by its predecessor uu, which eventually become the modern letter W. In Old English glossaries, wynn is alphabetized as if it was a modern W. Wynn looks similar to thorn in some fonts and can easily be confused with that other letter.

Wynn is frequently substituted by a W in modern versions of Old English texts. We follow this practice on this site, but only because wynn is not supported by the fonts that ship with Microsoft Windows and cannot be read unless one installs a font that does support it.

Another odd letter to modern eyes is the insular G.  The insular script developed in Ireland in the 7th century and then spread to Britain and the Continent by missionaries. The insular G can still be found in modern Gaelic writing. The insular G is alphabetized as if it were a modern G.

This is another character than cannot be found in most Microsoft fonts, which is unfortunate. Unlike wynn, which can accurately be substituted by the modern letter W, the insular G cannot be adequately substituted by the modern G as its range of pronunciation was substantially wider than the modern letter. In addition to the /g/ and /j/ sounds, the insular G is also used for the /y/, /gh/, /x/, and /w/ sounds. It is actually more difficult to read Old English if the insular G is replaced by the modern G as the range of possible pronunciations is not readily apparent to the modern reader. But because it is not available on the most commonly found computer fonts, we reluctantly replace it with the modern G on this site.

The other letter that is found in Old English is the ligature Æ, æ, known as ash. Ash has a sound intermediate to the modern A and E. The ligature is still found in modern English, particularly British, orthography in words like encyclopædia, dæmon, and mediæval. In the US, the letter E is usually used in these modern cases. Ash is alphabetized between A and B.

The Old English alphabet is also missing some letters we use today. The letters J, V, and X are missing entirely. The insular G is used for the /j/ and /x/ sounds and the letter F being used for the /v/.

The letters Q and Z are found only in foreign names. In native words the /q/ sound is represented in Old English by the letters cw and the /z/ by the letter S.