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Posted By: Jackie Top Words of 2011 - 11/12/11 03:04 AM
I can't put a link because of the ads, but I feel sure googling this subject will let people find a site.
Anyway, here they are, as picked by The Global Language Monitor:

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 banner 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%”.

It also lists Top Phrases, but I'm skating pretty darned close to the edge as it is, I think.
Posted By: Faldage Re: Top Words of 2011 - 11/12/11 04:51 AM
Interesting that Obama-mania was number 3 in the Top Words list for 2008 and number 2 in the Top Phrases list for 2009. But then this is Paul JJ (One Million Words) Payack we're dealing with.
Posted By: Jackie Re: Top Words of 2011 - 11/12/11 11:38 PM
You know him? What's he like? He wrote back, in reply to my e-mail suggesting there be better editing.
Posted By: Faldage Re: Top Words of 2011 - 11/13/11 12:50 AM
I know of him. He's famous on Language Log for his notion that English got its one millionth word at some specific date and time.

Here
Posted By: zmjezhd Re: Top Words of 2011 - 11/13/11 01:51 PM
He's famous on Language Log for his notion that English got its one millionth word at some specific date and time.

More inmous than not.
Posted By: Rhubarb Commando Re: Top Words of 2011 - 11/21/11 10:27 PM
This does sound analagous to Bishop James Ussher's calculation that the World was created in 4004 BC.

Does he actually give a date for the millionth word?
Posted By: Faldage Re: Top Words of 2011 - 11/22/11 12:21 AM
Not only a date but a time and date.

http://www.languagemonitor.com/about/news/1000000th-english-word-announced/
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