According to the American Dialect Society, the term Google (when used as a verb), is the top of word of the last decade, beating out "green," "blog," "text," "9/11," and "war on terror" for the honor.
"It's hard to imagine life before we were Googling," American Dialect Society executive council member Ben Zimmer says.
In 2002, "Google" was voted as "most useful" by the Society, and there aren't too many people out there who could have seen Google's raging successes coming.
During the decade, the suffix "-er" saw a boost, with terms such as "flip-flopper" and "birther" becoming commonplace, and the prefix "un-" saw a boost as well, with terms such as "unfollow" and "unfriend" becoming mainstays thanks to Twitter and Facebook.
A few of the notable words of the decade that have not "stood the test of time" despite being very popular at one point include "muggle" (from Harry Potter), "bushlips," and "plutoed."
CBS, via the Society has posted some of the most notable words for each year of the past decade:
2000:
Chad; Courtesy call; Civil union; Nader traitor
2001:
9/11; Shuicide bomber; Ground zero; Misunderestimate
2002:
WMD; Google (verb); Blog; Amber alert; Regime change
2003:
Metrosexual; Embed; SARS; Pre-emptive self defense
2004:
Red state, blue state, purple state; Flip-flopper; Phish; krunked
2005:
Truthiness; Katrina; Podcast; Sudoku
2006:
Plutoed; Macaca; YouTube; Lactard; waterboarding
2007:
Subprime; Facebook; Green- (prefix); Truther; Toe tapper
2008:
Bailout; Barack Obama; Change; maverick; Shovel ready; TWD (texting while driving); Bromance; Terrorist fist jab
2009:
Tweet; -er (suffix); Fail; Public option; H1N1; Death panel; Sexting
Here's to another ten years of ridiculous terms AD :)
In 2002, "Google" was voted as "most useful" by the Society, and there aren't too many people out there who could have seen Google's raging successes coming.
During the decade, the suffix "-er" saw a boost, with terms such as "flip-flopper" and "birther" becoming commonplace, and the prefix "un-" saw a boost as well, with terms such as "unfollow" and "unfriend" becoming mainstays thanks to Twitter and Facebook.
A few of the notable words of the decade that have not "stood the test of time" despite being very popular at one point include "muggle" (from Harry Potter), "bushlips," and "plutoed."
CBS, via the Society has posted some of the most notable words for each year of the past decade:
2000:
Chad; Courtesy call; Civil union; Nader traitor
2001:
9/11; Shuicide bomber; Ground zero; Misunderestimate
2002:
WMD; Google (verb); Blog; Amber alert; Regime change
2003:
Metrosexual; Embed; SARS; Pre-emptive self defense
2004:
Red state, blue state, purple state; Flip-flopper; Phish; krunked
2005:
Truthiness; Katrina; Podcast; Sudoku
2006:
Plutoed; Macaca; YouTube; Lactard; waterboarding
2007:
Subprime; Facebook; Green- (prefix); Truther; Toe tapper
2008:
Bailout; Barack Obama; Change; maverick; Shovel ready; TWD (texting while driving); Bromance; Terrorist fist jab
2009:
Tweet; -er (suffix); Fail; Public option; H1N1; Death panel; Sexting
Here's to another ten years of ridiculous terms AD :)
