Top Words,Stories, Phrases and Names of The Decade
The Top Words of the Decade from 2000 to 2009 were headed by Global Warming.
The Top Words of the Decade from 2000–2009
Word/Year/Comments
1. global warming (2000) Rated highly from Day One of the decade
2. 9/11 (2001) Another inauspicious start to the decade
3. Obama- (2008 ) The US President’s name as a ‘root’ word or ‘word stem’
4. bailout (2008) The Bank Bailout was but Act One of the crisis
5. evacuee/refugee (2005) After Katrina, refugees became evacuees
6. derivative (2007) Financial instrument or analytical tool that engendered the Meltdown
7. google (2007) Founders misspelled actual word ‘googol’
8. surge (2007) The strategy that effectively ended the Iraq War
9. Chinglish (2005) The Chinese-English Hybrid language growing larger as Chinese influence expands
10. tsunami (2004) Southeast Asian Tsunami took 250,000 lives
11. H1N1 (2009) More commonly known as Swine Flu
12. subprime (2007) Subprime mortgages were another bubble to burst
13. dot.com (2000) The Dot.com bubble engendered no lifelines, no bailouts
14. Y2K (2000) The Year 2000: all computers would turn to pumpkins at the strike of midnight
15. misunderestimate (2002) One of the first and most enduring of Bushisms
16. chad (2000) Those Florida voter punched card fragments that the presidency would turn aupon
17. twitter (2008) A quarter of a billion references on Google
18. WMD (2002) Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
19. blog (2003) First called ‘web logs’ which contracted into blogs
20. texting (2004) Sending 140 character text messages over cell phones
21. slumdog (2008) Child inhabitants of Mumba’s slums
22. sustainable (2006) The key to ‘Green’ living where natural resources are never depleted
23. Brokeback (2004) New term for ‘gay’ from the Hollywood film ‘Brokeback Mountain’
24. quagmire (2004) Would Iraq War end up like Vietnam, another ‘quagmire’?
25. truthiness (2006) Stephen Colbert’s addition to the language appears to be a keeper
The Top Stories of the decade from 2000-2009
Rank/News Story/Comment
1. Rise of China The biggest story of the decade, outdistancing the No. 2 Internet story by 400%.
2. Iraq War The buildup, the invasion, the hunt for the WMDs, and the Surge were top in print and electronic media outlets.
3. 9/11 Terrorist Attacks The 9/11 Terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC seemed to set the tone for the new decade.
4. War on Terror President George W. Bush’s response to 9/11.
5. Death of Michael Jackson A remarkably high ranking considering that MJ’s death occurred in the final year of the decade.
6. Election of Obama to US presidency The rallying cries of ‘hope’ and ‘Yes, we can!’ resulting in the historic election of an African-American to the US presidency.
7. Global Recession of 2008/9 The on-going world economic restructuring as opposed to the initial ‘economic meltdown’ or ‘financial tsunami’.
8. Hurricane Katrina New Orleans was devastated when the levies collapsed; scenes of death and destruction shocked millions the world over.
9. War in Afghanistan Now in its eighth year with an expansion into neighboring Pakistan.
10. Economic Meltdown/Financial Tsunami The initial shock of witnessing some 25% of the world’s wealth melting away seemingly overnight.
11. Beijing Olympics The formal launch of China onto the world stage.
12. South Asian Tsunami The horror of 230,000 dead or missing, washed away in a matter of minutes was seared into the consciousness the global community.
13. War against the Taliban Lands controlled by the Taliban served as a safe haven from which al Qaeda would launch its terrorist attacks.
14. Death of Pope John Paul II The largest funeral in recent memory with some 2,000,000 pilgrims in attendance.
15. Osama bin-Laden eludes capture Hesitation to attack Tora Bora in 2002 has led to the continuing manhunt.
The Top Phrases of the Decade from 2000–2009
Word/Year/Comments
1. climate change (2000) Green words in every form dominant the decade
2. Financial Tsunami (2008) One quarter of the world’s wealth vanishes seemingly overnight
3. ground zero (2001) Site of 9/11terrorist attack in New York City
4. War on Terror (2001) Bush administration’s response to 9/11
5. Weapons of Mass Destruction (2003) Bush’s WMDs never found in Iraq or the Syrian desert
6. swine flu (2008) H1N1, please, so as not to offend the pork industry or religious sensitivities!
7. “Let’s Roll!” (2001) Todd Beamer’s last words before Flight 93 crashed into the PA countryside
8. Red State/Blue State (2004) Republican or Democratic control of states
9. carbon footprint (2007) How much CO² does an activity produce?
10. shock-and-awe (2003) Initial strategy of Iraq War
11. Ponzi scheme (2009) Madoff’s strategy reaped billions & heartache
12. Category 4 (2005) Force of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans’ seawalls and levies
13. King of Pop (2000) Elvis was the King, MJ the King (of Pop)
14. “Stay the course” (2004) Dubya’s oft-stated guidance for Iraq War
15. “Yes, we can!” (2008) Obama’s winning campaign slogan
16. “Jai Ho!” (2008) Shout of joy from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
17. “Out of the Mainstream” (2003) Complaint about any opposition’s political platform
18. Cloud computing (2007) Using the Internet as a large computational device
19. threat fatigue (2004) One too many terrorist threat alerts
20. same-sex marriage (2003) Marriage of gay couples
Read more about this topic: Global Language Monitor
Famous quotes containing the words top, phrases, names and/or decade:
“In all her products, Nature only develops her simplest germs. One would say that it was no great stretch of invention to create birds. The hawk which now takes his flight over the top of the wood was at first, perchance, only a leaf which fluttered in its aisles. From rustling leaves she came in the course of ages to the loftier flight and clear carol of the bird.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And so I will take back up my poor life, so plain and so tranquil, where phrases are adventures and the only flowers I gather are metaphors.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“Row after row with strict impunity
The headstones yield their names to the element,
The wind whirrs without recollection....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Like those before it, this decade takes on the marketable subtleties of a private phenomenon: parenthood. Mothers are being teased out of the home and into the agora for a public trial. Are we doing it right? Do we have the right touch? The right toys? The right lights? Is our child going to grow up tall, thin and bright? Something private, and precious, has become public, vulgarized—and scored by impersonal judges.”
—Sonia Taitz (20th century)