Janet CollinsA Tale of Two Lists
December 7th 2008 09:47
Socialism is a very unpopular word in America. The trouble is so many people do not even know what it means. In the Merriam-Webster word of the year contest, “socialism” was the third most looked up word on the dictionary’s website in 2008.
Beating “socialism” was “bailout” in first place followed by “vet” in second place. Bailout, defined by Meriam-Webster as “a rescue from financial distress”, also made it to the top 10 most used words in another list released this week.
The Top 10 Words for 2008, a list assembled by The Global Language Monitor, is the result of an analysis of word trends and usage all over the world. The second most used word according to this list was “bailout” only to be eclipsed by “change” although “bailout” only entered the race in September and moved quickly to second spot.
Most of the words on each of the lists related to the US election and used by candidates or journalists throughout the election campaign or are linked to the global financial crises.
Many of these words have a few definitions. These are some of the ones I have chosen best represent 2008.
The Top 10 Looked-Up Words in Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:
1. bailout – a rescue from financial distress
2. vet - not the person who tends to your pet but the verb: to evaluate for possible approval or acceptance (vet the candidates for a position) – a pity the Republicans didn’t vet Sarah Palin.
3. socialism - any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. Lookups of socialism began to climb in September when references to socialism escalated in the later stages of the US election campaign and talk of economic socialism in the US corporate arena increased.
4. maverick – an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party – a term used often to describe Presidential candidate, John McCain.
5. bipartisan - marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties ie when the two major parties are in agreement on an issue such as corporate bailouts and war.
6. trepidation – comes from Latin word trepidare – to tremble. Very well describes the corporate world in America and elsewhere at the moment. Or can refer to a tremulous motion – tremor!
7. precipice – a hazardous situation – again quite aptly describes corporate America at the moment.
8. rogue – a dishonest or worthless person: scoundrel – take your pick there are thousands of them.
9. misogyny – a hatred of women: clearly the odd word out on the list.
10. turmoil - a state or condition of extreme confusion, agitation, or commotion – again describing not only America but the world at the moment.
The Top Ten Words of 2008 - List of the most used words compiled by The Global Language Monitor
1. change – the top political buzzword of the 2008 US Presidential campaign.
2. bailout – would have been higher but was not in the media until Mid-September.
3. Obamamania – describing the worldwide reaction to Barack Obama’s campaign and subsequent victory in the US presidential race.
4. greenwashing – repositioning a product to stress its Earth-friendly attributes.
5. surge – military and political strategy often cited as reducing violence in Iraq.
6. derivative – exotic financial instruments used to cleverly package junk-grade debt.
7. subprime – mortgages that were packaged as derivatives.
8. foreclosure – the end-result of the sub-prime mess.
9. Phelpsian - new word coined to describe the Phelpsian Pheat of winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
10. Chinglish – the often amusing Chinese/English language hybrid that Beijing tried to stamp out before the Olympics began.
Bailout was the only word to gain a place in both lists, although most of the words on both lists related mostly to the global financial crisis or the US election campaign.
This tells us something. The global financal crisis has a silver lining - we may all become a bit more literate. At the very least, news and current affairs can have us all diving into our dictionaries. That has to be a good thing doesn’t it?
Information sourced from :
The SydneyMorning Herald
FlashNews.Com
Merriam-Webster Online
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Comment by Chris Champion
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Thanks for letting me know about this fascinating list. Next year, I'm queueing for 48 hours to beat you to the story
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Maverick is a good term isn't it? Rather colourful really. When I mentioned "hog" I only meant writing about this list before Chris did.
Thanks for the comment.
Comment by Janet Collins
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You're right. It certainly isn't a good one and most definitely the odd word out in the list.
Take care.
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Comment by Lilla
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It would be wonderful to get the top words of the world (taken from all four directions and all languages), not just the US? I just cant imagine what those top 10 words would be? Makes my mind boggle actually...
I am sure Mysogny is pretty global though.
A great read, thanks.
Lilla ...
Comment by Janet Collins
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I enjoyed researching it and writing it so I thought that someone at least would enjoy the information. And yes, it would be good to get a global list. The mind certainly does boggle imagining this one.
Thank you for dropping by.
Janet
Comment by Janet Collins
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My posts are pretty well whatever comes up at the time. I have done quite a lot since this post but the topics are very broad.
Thank you for visiting. I hope you can viisit some of the other posts too.
Take care.
Janet