Merriam-Webster Online recently announced its "Word of the Year" for 2008, along with nine runners-up. As the website describes it, the word of the year is the one which received "the highest intensity of lookups...over the shortest period of time." And indeed, the entire list of ten words comprises a remarkably concise portrait of what we have been through over the past twelve months or so. The winning word: "bailout." The entire list follows:
1. bailout
2. vet
3. socialism
4. maverick
5. bipartisan
6. trepidation
7. precipice
8. rogue
9. misogyny
10. turmoil
Hopefully the present turmoil and trepidation will not result in maverick rogues driving us over the precipice, so that next year's list will have a few more positive terms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment