American Dialect Society - Words of The Year

Words of The Year

Year Word Notes
1990 bushlips (similar to "bullshit" – stemming from President George H. W. Bush's 1988 "Read my lips: no new taxes" broken promise)
1991 The mother of all (as in Saddam Hussein's foretold "Mother of all battles")
1992 Not! (meaning "just kidding")
1993 information superhighway
1994 cyber, morph (to change form)
1995 Web and (to) newt (to act aggressively as a newcomer).
1996 mom (as in "soccer mom").
1997 millennium bug
1998 e- (as in "e-mail").
1999 Y2K
2000 chad (from the 2000 Presidential Election controversy in Florida).
2001 9-11
2002 weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
2003 metrosexual
2004 red state, blue state, purple state (from the 2004 presidential election).
2005 truthiness popularized on The Colbert Report.
2006 plutoed (demoted or devalued, as happened to the former planet Pluto).
2007 subprime (an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage, or investment).
2008 bailout (a rescue by government of a failing corporation)
2009 tweet (a short message sent via the Twitter service)
2010 app
2011 occupy (in reference to the Occupy movement)

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Famous quotes containing the words words and/or year:

    “I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country [England], that man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge, in my opinion, consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet amusement.”
    —Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    “each year we see
    Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new;”
    —Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)