Word of The Year - Global Language Monitor - 2011 Selections

2011 Selections

GLM announced its Top Words of the Year for 2011 on November 11, 2011. "'Occupy’ is the Top Word, ‘Arab Spring’ the Top Phrase and ‘Steve Jobs’ the Top Name of 2011 in its annual global survey of the English language. Occupy was followed by deficit, fracking, drone, and non-veg. Kummerspeck, haboob, 3Q, Trustafarians, and (the other) 99 rounded out the Top 10.

The Top Words of 2011 (WOTY)

Rank/Word/Comments

  1. Occupy – ‘Occupy’ has risen to pre-eminence through Occupy Movement, the occupation of Iraq, and the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’.
  2. Deficit – Growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of the developed world.
  3. Fracking – Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method for extracting fossil fuels from hitherto unreachable deposits.
  4. Drone – The ever increasing number of remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and attack purposes.
  5. Non-veg – A meal served with meat, originally from India, now catching on worldwide.
  6. Kummerspeck – From the German seeing wider acceptance in the English, excess weight gained from emotional overeating (grief bacon).
  7. Haboob – A name imported from the Arabic for massive sandstorms in the American Southwest.
  8. 3Q – Near universal term for ‘thank you’ now earning additional status after being banned from official Chinese dictionaries. Another example of the ever increasing mixing of numbers and letters to form words.
  9. Trustafarians – Well-to-do youth (trust-funders) living a faux-Bohemian life style, now associated with the London Riots.
  10. (The Other) 99 – Referring to the majority of those living in Western Democracies who are left out of the dramatic rise in earnings associated with “the Top 1%”.

The Top Phrases of 2011

Rank/Word/Comments

  1. Arab Spring – The series of uprisings, social protests, and rebellions occurring among many nations of the Arab World beginning this spring.
  2. Royal Wedding – The wedding of the former Kate Middleton and heir-to-the-British-Throne, Prince William that captivated millions around the world.
  3. Anger and Rage – Characterizations of the global electorate by the pundits, though closer analyses has revealed more frustration than anger and more disappointment than rage.
  4. Climate Change – No. 1 phrase for the first decade of the 21st century; still resonates into its second decade.
  5. The Great Recession – Though officially over, the media term most frequently used to describe the on-going global economic restructuring.
  6. Tahrir Square – The scene of the ‘25th of January’ demonstrations in Cairo against Hosni Mubarak.
  7. Linear No Threshold (LNT) – The methodology to calculate risk from exposure to radioactive elements from the Fukushima Daiiachi disaster.
  8. Bunga Bunga – Re-emerged in the language through ‘bunga-bunga’ parties hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
  9. ‘How’s that working out for you?’ – The New York Times credits Sarah Palin, but it predates her use of the phrase by several decades.
  10. “Make no mistake about it!” – President Obama has repeated the phrase thousands of times since his 2008 election.

The Top Names of 2011

Rank / Name / Comments

  1. Steve Jobs – The citations for Steve Jobs topped those for No. 2 (Osama bin-Laden and Seal Team 6) by more than 30%.
  2. Osama bin-Laden & Seal Team 6 – Who changed the world more? Al-qaeda or Steve Jobs?
  3. Fukushima – The epicenter of the Japanese Triple Disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown).
  4. Mohamed Bouazizi – the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself afire and became the symbol of Tunisian resistance – and the Arab spring.
  5. Chinese Paramount Leader Hu Jintao – The Rise of the Tiger being a primary cause of the Global Economic Restructuring.
  6. Kate Middleton – She captivated the world with her elegance and style and continues to do so as the Duchess of Cambridge.
  7. Muammar Gaddafi – Libyan strongman toppled in the recent insurrection.
  8. President Barack Obama – Hope and Change retreat further into the history books; the game plan is now for survival.
  9. PIIGS – The nations of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain taken together for their untenable deficits possibly affecting the economic health of the Eurozone.
  10. Yaroslavl Lokomotiv – The ill-fated elite Russian hockey team that was virtually wiped out in the crash of a three-engine Yak-42.

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Famous quotes containing the word selections:

    Artists, whatever their medium, make selections from the abounding materials of life, and organize these selections into works that are under the control of the artist.... In relation to the inclusiveness and literally endless intricacy of life, art is arbitrary, symbolic and abstracted. That is its value and the source of its own kind of order and coherence.
    Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)