Jen Doll, “The Final Countdown to the Word of the Year Is Here” (The Atlantic Wire, Jan. 4, 2013)
In advance of tonight’s meeting, which is open to the public, the Society has issued a list of nominations for what linguist and language columnist Ben Zimmer, who is chair of the New Words Committee for ADS, calls “the ‘lesser’ categories”: most useful, most likely to succeed, most outrageous, and so on. Regardless of any personal feelings you might have about the words therein, the list itself is a fascinating glimpse into our year in words. As for what to expect tonight, Zimmer tells us, “At the big event, we’ll vote for winners in those categories and then open it up for nominations in the main WOTY category. The nominees may come from the various other categories, or they might be new nominations, not on our curent list. (In past years, app and tweet have won WOTY after getting nominated from the floor.)”
Unlike last year, when occupy was the clear favorite, for 2012 there’s no obvious front-runner. Zimmer’s money is on fiscal cliff and YOLO as “most likely to make it to the final round of voting,” but he caveats that, saying, “these things are hard to predict!”
Read the rest here.