The San Francisco Chronicle has returned with its annual
"Vote for the Word of the Year" challenge, this year allowing word combinations as well as single words. [At least one, receiving special notice thus far, has been discussed here: "dude".]

"Vote for Word of the Year"
San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, December 28, 2004

Extract:

"Here are the five words that got the most buzz among the several hundred people who responded to our call for nominations:

Wardrobe malfunction* -- This excuse, offered by Justin Timberlake for his and Janet Jackson's Super strip-tease act, became shorthand for a year of debate over what's fit for the airwaves, which led to the planned departure of Howard Stern for satellite radio.

Red state/blue state** -- This matched set from TV election-night maps became the shorthand way of expressing the country's deep political and cultural divisions.

Blog****-- This word has been around for awhile, but what could be more 2004 than the term for a web journal. Just ask Dan Rather.

Insurgents*** -- Terrorists? Rebels? Loyalists? Nope, the media-certified word for the other side in Iraq is about the blandest term possible.

iPod***** -- Five years after Napster, the future of downloadable music finally became clear with the success of the Apple music player.

A few other words received multiple nominations, including "low-carb," "girlie-men," "BALCO," and, with several spellings, "duuuuude."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/12/22/word22.DTL

re BALCO
If anyone is wondering about "BALCO", as I was, it isn't an acronym* [even tho it is capitalized]. It is a reference to "Balco Laboratories" and the current "Balco investigation" into drug doping of Olympic athletes.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/special_packages/doping_scandal/10458499.htm?1c

* Perhaps it is an acronym, after all: BALCO - Bay Area Laboratories Company. In any case, if it isn't an acronym, it is now a synonym [for a sensational drug doping scandal].

I prefer chrismaramakwanzikah, even though ramadan doesn't always fall in winter. i'm surprised that metrosexual isn't on that list.

puto te esse stultum

puto te esse stultum

I don't read latin, bluefruitbowl, but I think the phrase translates "I consider you a fool [or "foolish"]. "Stultum" is probably the same root as "stultifying". Interesting.

Do you consider the Chronicle's "Word of the Year" Vote "foolish", or just the omission of the word "metrosexual" from the Chronicle's small sampling of entries to date?

Have you heard of a wardrobe malfunction
Which happens only when everyone's watchin'
In the midst of a song
The dress code goes wrong
And the music is barely worth listenin'. :)

i'm surprised that metrosexual isn't on that list.

"Metrosexual" is sooo 2003.

What murk - the word "insurgents"!
as in...
"In Defense of their homeland the insurgents blew themselves up in the marketplace and killed 67 men, women, and children of their countrymen in the proccess to underscore their point."

I made up a word in 2004 for drunken NASCAR rednecks in the infield to use on signs at Talladega...

__________SHOW US______
_______YOUR JANETS_____

...but it didn't catch on.

SHOW US______
_______YOUR JANETS_____ ... but it didn't catch on.

That's because Janet only showed us one of them.

NASCAR drivers like to drive with both hands on the wheel. :)

Metrosexual is sooo '03
For me, it is way two twee
to give it a score
in 2004
when it was boring in 2003.

The roads are so bad of late
That's it's hard to keep it all straight
When the off ramps emerge
In the midst of a merge
And you can't tell a red state from blue state.

If only we had some detergents
To go to work on insurgents
We could scrub them so clean
They wouldn't look so mean
And we could find them less dirty employment.

Have you heard of the latest Netvention
Which threatens every Convention
Every candidate's fright
Is to get caught on a site
With a blog on his reputation.

and where's jheem?

where's jheem?

I think he got promoted. :)

An iPod is music from heaven
It keeps playing twenty-four seven
If it gets stuck in your ear
You'll have reason to fear
You'll get tripped out and end up in heaven.

The News Director for SFgate.com advises that "metrosexual" was their "Word of the Year" in 2003.

He also reports that he has used AWAD for anagrams in the past, but he wasn't aware, until now, that we had a word-talk forum by the name of AWADtalk.

Perhaps he will honor us by peeking in from time to time. Who knows? We all love words and we are not reserved about promoting them fondly. :)

I forwarded Linguists' phrase of the year: "Red state, blue state, purple state" from the Monday's Seattle Times (Jan 10) to the News Director of the San Francisco Chronicle online [SFgate.com] and here is his reply:

Thanks, Robert, I hadn't seen that. This is the third year out of the last four that the linguists have come up with the same word or phrase we did.

Vlae

Seattle Times story [Jan 10/05]:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002147143_webwords10.html


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 8:30 AM
To: Vlae Kershner
Subject: Seattle Times Jan 10-Phrase of '04

Vlae:

You probably saw this in yesterday's Seattle Times:

Linguists' phrase of the year: "Red state, blue state, purple state"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002147143_webwords10.html

Robert