WOTY’s it all about?

Mr Slang looks at the nominations for ‘Word of the Year’ and wonders why they bother…

What are words worth?
Tom  Tom Club ‘Wordyrappinghood’  (1981)

Let us assume, why not, that it’s me. Let us assume, nothing new here, that I’m wrong. Let us assume, hardly a first in self-denial, that everyone else is right. Let assume that it’s jealousy, ineptitude, laziness, a shameful irresolution and indecisiveness. Even that contemporary sin: relativism. Let us assume that I’m dumb. But honestly, really, truly, whatever indeed you would have me say in the way of self-eviscerative confession… I do not get this ‘WOTY’ stuff.  These Words Of The Year.

I should do. After all I’m part of the gang. Some of my best friends pontificate on these lists. Some of my best friends create them and can be seen, heard or read so doing any day now and throughout this and other seasons when such aggregations of vowels and consonants are sent out to strut their stuff. I should, surely, be in there cheering. But I’m sorry. I don’t get it. And worse still, I don’t care.

WOTY began in 1991 when the American Dialect Society (of which I’m a member or was when last I checked)  set the lexical ball rolling with mother of all. As in Saddam Hussein’s description of the incipient mother of all battles (Arabic umm al-ma‘ārik) with what the US, opting for its own fantasy, termed Operation Desert Storm. Two things to be noted (setting aside of course whether you feel it qualified for the award) this is not one but three words of the year. A phrase, in other words. Nor is it remotely new. One can find mother of all, meaning a superlative version in 1878 (‘the mother of all trouts’), in 1921 ‘the mother of all diseases (catarrh, if you were wondering) and so on. 

But perhaps this is pettifogging, pernickety and indeed pedantic. Word, shmurd, as long as it gets the lineage. Over the years the ADS has offered such annual treats as information superhighway (1993), e– (1998, as in e-mail and the like), Y2K (1999), 9-11 (2001), metrosexual (2003), truthiness (2005; knowledge gleaned from gut feelings rather than from factual research and as such a synonym for common sense),  subprime (2007) and most recently app (2010). There have also been citations for word of the ‘90s: web, of the 20th century: jazz, and the noughties: google, as a verb. Stayers, one must admit, if almost invariably technological.

And the ADS is no longer alone. Others have joined the party. Some go for epitome, others for quantity. It now seems obligatory for those who produce reference works or dabble in the field to offer their own  equivalent of the ADS celebrant. Our breath remains bated as regards the Society’s winner for 2011, but no matter. We can look elsewhere. Oxford, for instance, have jumped this year’s gun with George Osborne’s social unfortunates, the squeezed middle. Online Dictionary.com, apparently urged on by their Facebook followers,  prefers tergiversate, which they define as ‘to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.’ Starting in 2000 the Global Language Monitor of Austin, Texas, established to do just what it says on the box, has been selecting the Top Ten Words, Phrases and Names of the Year, basing their results on ‘a statistical analysis of language usage in the worldwide print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the Blogosphere.’ This year’s top word is occupy and top phrase Arab Spring. As of 2003 the US reference publisher Merriam Webster has selected their top ten: the first winner was democracy, 2004 had blog, 2005 integrity, 2006 truthiness (matching the ADS), 2007 w00t (the nerdish cry of joy), and in 2009 admonish. Sound stuff, no argument there, but often somewhat…mundane. 

Why stick to English. The Germans have also picked up the game. Here we seem to have pessimism: Klimakatastrophie (2007), Finanzkrise (2008)and Abwrackprämie (2009, scrapping) top some recent lists. Lichtenstein had Industriezubringer (shuttle industry), Switzerland, another early starter for 2011 has Euro-Rabatt which means literally ‘Euro-off and refers to bargains enjoyed by the Swiss thanks to a favourable franc-euro exchange rate. France has gone for degage!, which means ‘get out!’ and was the advice of choice by Tunisian protestors to their president Zeine Zl-Abbidine Ben Ali. Egyptians and Yemenis used it too. Back with the Anglophonic, Canada had G20 for 2010, with busty hookers as ‘sentimental favourite.’

If I have to opt for a WOTY maven, then I go for Susie Dent, she of Countdown’s Dictionary Corner and a number of grander job-titles besides. She offers a whole booksworth of Words of the Year. Much more fun. Much more choice. And as she points out, quite unreservedly subjective. Not sure that truthiness is among them.

But…why? What, I hear every time I lecture or, rather less often, am interviewed, what is your favourite slang word? I know not, nor indeed do I care. ‘They’re all my babies,’ I intone, somewhat coyly, and note that at last count there were approximately 115,000 of them on file and how in hell should I know which is better than its neighbours. Gertcha, I long to shout. I don’ need no fockin’ lists. Maybe, of course, I should initiate a slang WOTY, but my fear is that someone might take me seriously.

I ask again, why? Merchandising, I imagine. A tour d’horizon of this year’s version of that ever-popular essay in infantilism: The Wacky World of Words.  At least that must be so for the publishers. One more iteration of what is now a well-substantiated fashion: a new edition of Lexicon A appears. What gets it publicity? Oooh! Look at our new sexy words. Aren’t they exciting. And see,  here’s some young people’s slang. Oooh-er! (Even it is decades old and those who coined it often long since dead). And some nu-tech inventiveness. Coo! And it’s true: see those column inches. Can’t deny that WOTYs have the same effect. ‘Squeezed middle’ gets 137K hits on today’s google. Mission undoubtedly accomplished. Whether it ups the sales of the OED who knows. Still, it keeps the drudges happy. We don’t get out much, you see.

I’ll give you a word. This year’s, last years and every year’s. Curmudgeon. How’d you like that. Bah! Humbug!

image ©Gabriel Green
You can buy Green’s Dictionary of Slang, as well as Jonathon’s more slimline Chambers Slang Dictionary, plus other entertaining works, at his Amazon page. Jonathon also blogs and Tweets.
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About Author Profile: Jonathon Green

Jonathon 'Mr Slang' Green is the world's leading lexicographer of English slang. You can buy Green's Dictionary of Slang, as well as Jonathon's more slimline Chambers Slang Dictionary, plus other entertaining works, at his Amazon page. Jonathon also blogs and Tweets.

5 thoughts on “WOTY’s it all about?

  1. jonhotten@aol.com'
    December 8, 2011 at 13:10

    Those Germans are just sticking them together, aren’t they? Does that count?

    • Worm
      December 8, 2011 at 14:21

      Germans cheat all the time, especially when it comes to computer/technical terms; for instance ‘downloaded’ in german is ‘gedownloaded’

  2. john.hh43@googlemail.com'
    John Halliwell
    December 8, 2011 at 13:46

    Great post, Jonathan, I tittered from start to finish. Your photo of the magnificent Rachel Riley is a telling graphical depiction of how a squeezed middle inflates the number of those at the arse-end of society; a point not readily apparent to Chancellor George.

  3. Brit
    December 8, 2011 at 14:06

    Merkozy?

  4. law@mhbref.com'
    jonathan law
    December 8, 2011 at 17:42

    … a new edition of Lexicon A appears. What gets it publicity? Oooh! Look at our new sexy words. Aren’t they exciting. And see, here’s some young people’s slang. Oooh-er! (Even it is decades old and those who coined it often long since dead). And some nu-tech inventiveness. Coo! And it’s true: see those column inches.

    As a seasoned hack in the field of dictionary compilation, I laughed out loud at that, it being an absolutely accurate account of the way publishers’ marketing departments approach these matters. I suppose it’s inane, but faced with the problem of publicizing a new edition of a dictionary — not a world-shattering event, for most people — what do you do? Generating column inches has to be all: a publicist once told me that, with any book, the tiniest item on the news pages is worth more than the longest most laudatory review — most people don’t even skim the arts n’ culture stuff. So anything goes really. I’m fairly sure that when we’re asked to include the silliest, most transient journalese in our books (and, conversely, to chuck out perfectly good English words as ‘obsolete’) the askers know as well as I do that it’s absurd. The point is to stir up a discussion, even at the cost of being preposterous.

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