New Category Election-Related Words: maverick, a person who is beholden to no one. Widely used by the Republican Presidential and Vice- Presidential candidates, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Also in the adjectival form mavericky, used by Tina Fey portraying Palin on Saturday Night Live。
2007Word of the Year:subprime, an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage, or investment。
Most Useful:green- prefix/compounding form, designates environmental concern, as in greenwashing。
Most Creative: googleg nger, a person with your name who shows up when you google yourself。
Most Unnecesssary:Happy Kwanhanamas! [Kwanza + Hanukka + Christmas] Happy holidays!
Most Outrageous:toe tapper, A homosexual. Senator Larry Craig was arrested in June for an encounter in a public restroom in which toe-tapping was said to have been used as a sexual comeon。
Most Euphemistic: human terrain team, a group of social scientists employed by the US military to serve as cultural advisers in Iraq or Afghanistan。
Most Likely to Succeeed: green- prefix/compounding form, designates environmental concern, as in greenwashing。
Least Likely to Succeed: strand-in, protest duplicating being stranded inside an airplane on a delayed flight。
New Category, Real Estate Words:subprime, used to describe a risky or poorly documented loan or mortgage。
2006Word of the Year,to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued。
Most Useful: climate canary, an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon。
Most Creative: lactard, a person who is lactose-intolerant。
Most Unnecessary:SuriKat, the supposed nickname of the baby girl of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes。
Most Outrageous: Cambodian accessory, Angelina Jolie’s adopted child who is Cambodian。
Most Euphemistic: waterboardingterrorist fist jab, an interrogation technique in which the subject is immobilized and doused with water to simulate drowning; reported to be used by U.S. interrogators against terrorism detainees。
Most Likely to Succeed: YouTube as a verb, to use the YouTube web site or to have a video of one’s self be posted on the site。
Least Likely to Succeed:grup, a Gen-Xer who does not act his or her age。
New Category, Pluto- Related Words:to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued。
2005Word of the Year
truthiness, what one wishes to be the truth regardless of the facts. (From the Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, a mock news show on Comedy Central。)
Most Useful:podcast, audio or video file for downloading. Most Creative: whale-tail, the appearance of thong or g-string underwaear above the waistband。
Most Unnecessary:K Fed, Kevin Federline, Mr. Britney Spears。
Most Outrageous:crotchfruit, a child or children。
Most Euphemistic:internal nutrition force-feeding a prisoner。
Most Likely to Succeed: sudokunumber puzzle from Japan。
Least Likely to Succeed:popesquatting registering a likely domain name of a new pope before the pope chooses his new name in order to profit from it。
Special nonce category, Best Tom Cruise-Related Word:jump the couch, to exhibit frenetic behavior like Cruise’s couch-bouncing on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show。
2004Word of the Year:red/blue/purple states, red favoring conservative Republicans and blue favoring liberal Democrats, as well as the undecided purple states in the political map of the United States。
Most Useful:phish, to induce someone to reveal private information by means of deceptive email。
Most Creative:pajamahadeen, bloggers who challenge and fact-check traditional media。
Most Unnecessary: stalkette, a female stalker。
Most Outrageous:santorum, byproduct of anal sex, using the name of a senator opposed to the practice。
Most Euphemistic: badly sourced, false。
Most Likely to Succeed:red/blue/purple states。
Least Likely to Succeed:FLOHPA, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, important states in the 2004 presidential election。