Language Log

Nominate your 2007 Word of the Year

The American Dialect Society's word-of-the-year vote--the longest-running such vote anywhere--takes place in Chicago in January at its annual meeting. The academic society is now accepting word-of-the-year nominations at woty@americandialect.org. Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as "vocabulary item"--not just words but phrases. Your nominations do not have to be brand-new, but they should be newly prominent or notable in the past year, and should have appeared frequently in the national discourse. The word-of-the- year vote is not a formal induction of words into the American language, but a whimsical affair. Nominate accordingly.