Julie Moos, “‘Occupy’ Likely to be Word of the Year” (Poynter, Oct. 26, 2011)
“Occupy” is a strong contender for word of the year, says Ben Zimmer, who leads the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, which selected “app” last year and “tweet” in 2009. Other possibilities for 2011 include “winning” (thanks, Charlie Sheen) and “downgrade” (courtesy of the U.S. credit rating). Zimmer tells Brooke Gladstone that the word “occupy” has been around in English since the 14th century, but it was used to describe protests — by Italian factory workers — for the first time in 1920.
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