Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 11:00:38 -0600
From: Dennis Baron debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UIUC.EDU
Subject: woty makes washington post
Today's Washington Post carries the woty story:
Coming To Terms With 1997
Linguists Pick the Words Minted for the Year=20
By Gayle Worland
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, January 12, 1998; Page B01=20
NEW YORK=97It wasn't the Oscars, or the Tonys. There
wasn't a sequin in sight. Yet people from across=
the country
were gathered here Friday to vote on -- and=
celebrate -- one
of America's great cultural achievements of 1997:
A word.
Not just any word, but the single expression that=
sums up the
year just past or epitomizes a trend or is expected=
to become
part of the American vernacular. Or a term that is=
just so
irresistibly clever that it deserves its place in=
history.
Would "to office" win as this year's most useful=
verb in the
American Dialect Society's "Word of the Year"=
election?
Would "exit bag" (a bag placed over one's head to=
commit
suicide) clinch the honors for "most outrageous"=
new term?
As the supporters of "millennium-bug" squared off=
against the
contingent pushing "the bomb" (defined as "the=
greatest"), the
Grand Hyatt meeting room was not exactly atwitter=
with
suspense. But it was filled with lively debate and=
a little
home-grown hype, not to mention a fair amount of=
corduroy
and tweed.
The final 1997 word of the year: "millennium-bug"=
(meaning the
programming quirk that makes some computers unable=
to
register the year 2000).
The 1996 linguistic laurel went to the term "soccer=
mom" -- the
hard-working, upscale mother of the 1990s courted=
by minivan
manufacturers and presidential candidates, who=
recognized her
as a demographic force that should not be ignored.=
"Dot" (used
instead of "period" when pronouncing e-mail and Web
addresses, as in "dot-com") was declared the "most=
useful"
new word of 1996, and "ebonics" (a term for African
American vernacular English) was named "most=
controversial."
Since 1990, several dozen word wonks have sneaked=
out of
their seminars on morphology and accentology at the=
annual
Linguistic Society of America convention to have a=
good
chuckle over the terms that Americans just can't=
stop inventing
-- on the streets, in the media, at the water=
cooler -- almost
anywhere you can think of.
"Playing with language is a natural human=
characteristic," says
Allan A. Metcalf, executive secretary of the=
American Dialect
Society and an English professor at MacMurray=
College in
Illinois. By its very nature, any language -- in=
any culture --
cannot remain static. "People don't inherit=
language," Metcalf
says. "They learn it by interpreting and=
misinterpreting what
they hear."
Americans love the elasticity of their language,=
which converts
nouns into verbs with ease ("an impact" becomes "to=
impact")
and can turn "bad" into something good. Simple=
words have
come to symbolize whole currents in American=
culture, as
Metcalf and co-author David K. Barnhart pointed out=
in their
1997 book, "America in So Many Words." There's
"thanksgiving," for example, which dates back to=
1621; but
also "punk" (1618); "apple pie" (1629); "greenback"=
(1862);
"bloomers" (1851); "bluejeans" (1855); "skyscraper"=
(1883);
"credit card" (1888!); "jazz" (1913); "T-shirt"=
(1919);
"multicultural" (1941); and "Ms." (1952).
These words are spun by writers, talkers, kids on=
the
playground. But it's the linguists and=
dictionary-makers who
comb them out of magazines and newspapers, pour=
them into
databases, and jump out of their chairs when Dan=
Rather
brings a newly coined expression like "Y2K" (Year=
2000) into
"standard usage" by employing it on the "CBS=
Evening News."
Today, some of the newest words ricochet through=
the Internet
with high-baud speed. "You're faced with all these=
new
experiences and you don't know what to call=
things," explains
Gareth Branwyn of Arlington, the author of "Jargon=
Watch: A
Pocket Dictionary for the Jitterati," who was asked=
to nominate
new words he found on the World Wide Web for this=
year's
word-of-the-year competition. Cyberlingo, says=
Branwyn,
"errs on the side of the frivolous, the fast and=
the fun." A good
new word "is like a good joke," he says. "You=
remember it and
tell it to someone else, and they tell it to=
someone else. With the
Internet, there's a tremendous acceleration of the=
ability of
these terms to propagate."
Take "alpha-geek," a 1996 word of the year=
runner-up that
first appeared in Branwyn's Jargon Watch column in=
Wired
magazine. Every office has one: The alpha-geek is=
the leader of
the PC pack who can always figure out the problem=
with your
&^%*[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE] computer.
The vocabulary that's taken root online also tells=
us something
about that subculture, Branwyn ways. To contrast it=
with
cyberspace, the physical world is described as IRL=
(in real
life)." To escape the glow of the monitor and see a=
friend in the
flesh, one arranges "face time," or meets "F2F."
Like meteorologists who don't want to be wrong=
about the
next big storm, "jargonnauts" such as Branwyn dread=
missing
the coinage of a new expression such as "being=
Dilberted"
(abused by the boss) or "prairie-dogging" (the=
practice of
popping one's head above one's office cubicle).
So will "millennium-bug" go down in history? Not=
necessarily,
says Metcalf. "New words are made up all the time=
-- and
99.999 percent of them don't catch on. I think it=
takes about
40 years to know if a word is really going to=
establish in the
dictionary."
"We can't keep track of them all," adds Barnhart,=
author of
"The Barnhart Dictionary Companion." "There are too=
many
damn people out there using the language."
Winning Words=20
Other 1997 selections:
Most Useful: -razzi (the suffix): Aggressive=
pursuers, as in
stalkerazzi; Duh: Expression of stupidity.
Most Unnecessary: Heaven-o: Replacement for=
"Hello," used
in Kingsville, Tex., to avoid the presumed=
invocation of "Hell."
Most Likely to Succeed: DVD: Abbreviation for=
digital
versatile disc, the optical disc technology=
expected to replace
CDs.
Most Outrageous: Florida Flambe: Fire caused by=
Florida's
aging electric chair, "Old Sparky."
Brand Spanking New: El Nonsense: Illogical=
association of
some event with El Nino.
Most Euphemistic: Exit bag: Bag placed over one's=
head to
commit suicide.=20
=A9 Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company=
=20
Dennis Baron, Acting Head italic phone: /italic 217-333-2390
Department of English italic fax: /italic 217-333-4321
University of Illinois italic email: /italic debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu
608 S. Wright Street http://www.english.uiuc.edu/baron
Urbana, IL 61801