And the world
of the year for 2011 is...
by
Howard Richler
Since
1990, the American Dialect Society has paid homage to the most
sublime, lexiest creations of each year - the new words that grace
our lexicon annually.
These words have been drawn
from a number of varied categories. For
example, “ethnic cleansing” was the winner in 1992’s “most
outrageous category”
and “gate rape” (defined as “pejorative term for invasive new
airport pat-down procedures”) reigned supreme in the same category
in 2010. “Ebonics” was 1996’s “most controversial” word and
“waterboarding” won in the “most euphemistic” category in
2006.
Each year a “word of the year” is chosen and, as one would expect, the worlds of politics and technology have provided us with the dominant neologisms. Some of the sociopolitical selections have been somewhat Americentric, and perhaps as a result, have not exhibited staying power. A case in point is the expression “bushlips,” referencing insincere political rhetoric, which was awarded word of the year in 1990. Similarly, “newt” meaning “aggressive political changes by a neophyte” was this category's co-winner in1995. On the other hand, technological words have not been ephemeral as shown by the following still-used list of words of the year: app (2010), tweet, (2009), Y2K (1999), e-, as in e-mail, (1998). Conclusive evidence of this trend arrived in 2010 when “google” was voted the word of the decade.
On
Jan 6th 2012
at the American Dialect Society convention in Portland, Oregon,
it was decided that the word of the year for 2011 was “occupy.”
The choice fell to this
particular word because it was felt that
it
became an emblem for the whole protest movement. Ben Zimmer, the
language columnist of the Boston Globe stated
that although “occupy” is “a very old word, over the course of
just a few months it took on another life and moved in new and
unexpected directions, thanks to a national and global movement ...
The movement itself was powered by the word.” However,
I do
not agree that “occupy” is being used in a new distinct sense.
Starting in the 14th
century it had a sense of taking possession of something by force.
By 1920, the verb was used to mean to gain access to a piece of land
or building without authority
as a form of protest. For example, the London
Times on Sept 9,
1920 stated “The men have occupied the works in those cases where
the masters have declined the works at a loss. And
if I see another dumb joke on Facebook such as “I'm gonna occupy
a beer from the fridge now,” I'm going to seriously unfriend some
people.
Before
dismissing the Society's 2012 choice for word of the year, I would be
remiss if I didn't mention one particularly shocking sense
of “occupy” that has
fallen from our vernacular. From the 15th
century to the beginning of the 19th
century, the word
“occupy” was used as an
euphemism for engaging in sex For
example, in John Florio's Worlde
of Wordes written in 1598, there
is reference to “raskalie whores in
Italy, who cause them to be occupide one and thirtie times by one and
thirtie several base raskalie companions.”
The
other nominees for the 2011 word of the year were FOMO (an acronym
for Fear of Missing Out), a description of the angst we feel over the
deluge of data we receive on social media; “the 99%,” those
regarded to be at a political or economic disadvantage with
regards to the top wage-earners, the one
percenters; “job creator,” a member of the top 1% of moneymakers
and “humblebrag,” an expression of false humility, particularly
by celebs on Twitter. This last entry was deemed to be the winner in
the “most useful” category.
My
favourite category this year was the “most creative” section.
Here we sampled “bunga bunga” referring
to the sex parties associated with former Italain Prime Minister
Sylvio Berlusconi. Its etymology is somewhat murky, however, a German
actress claims that “bunga
bunga” originated
as Berlusconi's nickname for her, and
eventually morphed into his term for wild parties with young girls.
Another amusing
candidate in this category was “Kardash” referring
to a unit of measurement of 72 days, a time frame that coincides with
the short-term marriage of Kim Kardashian to Kris Humphries. But, the
winner in the “most creative” category was “Mellencamp”
describing a woman who has aged out of being a cougar.
Pop music enthusiasts will discern that the term is named after pop
singer John Cougar Mellencamp.
Indeed,
eponymous neologisms were popular this year. To “Mubarak” is “to
farcically hold on to power,” and if you're “Mubaraked” to
your chair it might mean you're stuck in it. Another eponymous term
that emerged this year was “Tebowing” lampooning the praying pose
of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.
Given
its geopolitical importance, I was disappointed that the term “Arab
Spring,” referring to popular uprisings against
dictatorial regimes in the Arab world was
not one of the nominees for word of the year. Mind you, it was
runner-up in the “most likely to succeed” genre. The winner here
was the word “cloud” referencing online space for the large-scale
processing and storage of data. Another term in this category that I
believe will have legs is “tiger mom” referring to an extremely
strict parent. This term derives from Amy Chua's memoir Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
Lest
you feel that Canada was given short shrift because neither the verb
“to Harper” (to cut off debate) or “to McKay” (to use a
military helicopter instead of a taxi while on vacation) did not
register with American Dialect voters, I am proud to say that the
whole impetus for the occupy movement had a Canadian genesis. It was
on July 13th
, 2011,
that the Vancouver-based anti-consumer
magazine Adbusters
suggested online that people “Occupy Wall Street” in lower
Manhattan on Sept 17th
, and in a heartbeat the movement
went viral and, thanks to
the Canucks, the American Dialect Society had its word of the year.
Howard's
latest book is Strange Bedfellows: The Private
Lives of Words.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment