Okay, maybe I’m just a linguistic pedant, but I just don’t find myself sharing Julia Roy’s joy at the fact that Merriam-Webster has annointed “w00t” (with the zeroes) their “Word of the Year” for 2007! But then again, I didn’t really like “ginormous” being added to the M-W dictionary, either. I know, I know… “languages evolve”… I should just deal with it. Sigh.
To be fair, M-W is not adding “w00t” to their “official” dictionary – at least not yet – and this “Word of the Year” was “based on votes of visitors to our Web site“, which of course will skew any poll that you run. (Although it is in their online “Open Dictionary”.) I did enjoy some of the runner-ups on Merriam-Webster’s list. Somewhat predictable that “facebook” would be on there, but fun to see “conundrum” and “quixotic”.
I think, though, the M-W folks are showing their age when they talk about “l33t” being “an esoteric computer hacker language”. They obviously have not spent any time with teenagers who are madly texting each other. (Although I suppose those who wish to get pedantic about Leet might say that texting and true “leetspeak” are different, but I’d argue there’s a good bit of crossover.) It does, however, warm this linguist’s heart to see someone actually using “esoteric”. Nice word.
Ah, the joy of language! w00t!
Technorati Tags: language, merriam-webster, dictionary, w00t
So what did you think of Oxford’s word of the year: Locavore
http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/
?
Judy,
Interesting… I have not ever seen the use of “locavore”, but I do see “localvore” all the time. I live in Burlington, Vermont, which is a hotbed for this type of environmentally-oriented thinking and so the “Buy Local” movement is quite strong here. Author Bill McKibben, who writes on these issues, also lives nearby and often gives presentations and speeches locally on the topic.
I think it is a bit strange without the middle “L”. “Locavore” doesn’t mean much to me when I hear it, but “localvore” is pretty straightforward to me. If you are also familiar with “carnivore”, “herbivore” and “omnivore, it’s a reasonable jump to make.
Thanks for the info,
Dan
Well, when I originally sent this around (back in November), a friend who is the marcomm director at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine responded, “An informal poll here at the College showed that many of us actually knew the word…not surprising, given our focus on nutrition and environmentalism. Nice word. The best definition I heard was ‘someone who eats crazy Spanish people.’ That was good for a Friday afternoon laugh!”
Maybe it’s good for a laugh this Friday, too.
All of my food experiences in Vermont have been good ones. Exceptional, in many cases (there was this one corn chowder at a place in Chester…yum!); ergo, I’m not surprised to hear that Buy Local is a credo. (I think Vermont is one of the most interesting states, whether it be for its scenery, inhabitants, creativity, activism or politics. Lots of hotbeds but very few hotheads.)