In a move that surprised many and pleased very few the Oxford English Dictionary made their usual yearly announcement of their "word of the year". It's suppose to be the one word that sums up or describes the year. I guess you have to understand just how boring and non-colorful life is for someone dealing in Lexemes to come up with such a yearly event. But it does have a certain interesting aspect. However this year they've gotten a little off the mark with their choice of 'Big Society'.
With that in mind I had to wonder what I would have chosen. And after only a small amount of thought (not really ready to devote much time on this question) I decided I would have chosen 'Babble'. For that's what we've seen this year from everyone... a lot of babble.
babble
a : to talk enthusiastically or excessively b : to utter meaningless or unintelligible sounds
2 : to make sounds as though babbling
transitive verb
1 : to utter in an incoherently or meaninglessly repetitious manner
2 : to reveal by talk that is too free
So I guess the question is what word would some of the rest of you chose? What word or thought in your mind best describes this last year?
Behold, the Word of the Year is unveiled
If you were going to choose a word to represent 2010 what would it be? Debt? Coalition? Wedding? Miners? Gamugate? Snow? There are lots to choose from. There are so many, in fact, that even the lexical behemoth that is the Oxford Dictionaries has struggled to narrow it down to just one word while it was selecting this year's ‘Word of the Year'.
And so, without further ado, and not so much as a drum roll, I can reveal the 2010 Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year is... ‘Big Society' or, yes, BS for short. Exciting, right? Call me a pessimist but it would appear that the Tory party's influence in the posher parts of the country is still rife.
That aside, is ‘Big Society' really the word, sorry, lexical item, that Oxford Dictionaries feels best represents the year? According to Susie Dent, spokesperson for Oxford Dictionaries and language expert on Channel 4's Countdown: "'Big Society' was for us a clear winner because it embraces so much of the year's political and economic mood. Taken to mean many things, it has begun to take on a life of its own, a sure sign of linguistic success."
Big Society as word of the year? I must have been watching the wrong year.
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