Time magazine has named its man of the year (ex-New
York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani), the United States has its villain
of the new century (Osama bin Laden) and now the American Dialect
Society is getting ready to vote on its word or phrase of the year.
And while cuddle puddle (a pile of ecstasy users on the floor)
is in the running, the smart money is backing phrases like "Ground
Zero," "Let's Roll," "9/11," "September
11," "Evil Doers," "Terrible Tuesday"
and "Post-September 11" as likely winners when voting
takes place on January 4 in a San Francisco hotel at the language
group's annual meeting.
While previous years have celebrated such phrases as "millennium
bug," "Y2K," "e-commerce" and "chads",
the language mavens studying 2001 are as consumed with the September
11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
The Dialect Society's Website has nominated more than 20 words
and phrases, including some that appeared in print maybe once
or twice like "Osamaniac" (a woman sexually attracted
to Osama bin Laden).
Besides "Ground Zero," the top 10 words on the list
include President George Bush's middle initial "W" in
second place with the advisory "The butt of January's political
jokes waxes most presidential in September."
In third place is "Jihad," the Arabic word for "struggle"
but which is used today as "Holy War."
"God" is in fourth place with its variations of "Allah"
and "Yahweh" with the note that in one form or another
the "name has been in more headlines and on the lips of more
politicians than any time in recent memory."
"Anthrax" is fifth on the list, followed by "Euro,"
Europe's new currency, and "Wizard" thanks to the Harry
Potter craze.
In eighth place, the long-ignored suffix "stan" makes
a comeback as in Pakistan, Afghanistan and thanks to a recent
New Yorker cover, a mythical place called "New Yorkistan"
which boasts such areas as "Irant and Irate," "Taxistan"
and "Fuhgeddabuditstan."
In 9th place is a tribute to talk show host Oprah Winfrey "Oprahization,"
a term denoting whether something would play on her show or not.
And in 10th place is "foot-and-mouth" referring to the
disease.
This Website also ranks the colors of the year and not surprisingly
in the groundswell of patriotic fervor that followed September
11 the three top colors of 2001 are red, white and blue.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2002-01-09 01:00