The editors of Webster's New World College Dictionary have announced their Word of the Year, overshare: "to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval."
My suggestion for the word of the year? Change. What's yours?
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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Another Word of the Year
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comments: 5
Pondering: can a word be subject to plagiarism? I'm the biggest supporter of Obama out there, but didn't he totally steal Change from Clinton's 1992 campaign?
Of course there's nothing trademarked about the word, and it certainly was interesting to see McCain try to steal it away from Obama...
Political scientists could probably show us that Change is a word used every election cycle. Why the word as rhetoric works more effectively for some and not others is a real question worthy of careful study.
As far as Change being the word of 2008, I would vote no. Perhaps it can be nominated for the word of 2009, if Obama's promise actually translates into real results.
Bret
I just found some excerpts from one of the 1992 debates (Bush, Clinton, Perot), and yes, change is there. Obama's election night speech echoed Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" too.
The way the word entered into everyone's discourse is what makes me think of it as a worthy word of the year. I remember Bill Richardson, for instance, during one of the Democratic debates: "I love change."
I think Hope, no? In all its winsome, naive, positive and yet pathetic lameness.
I agree that change takes any reasonable cake. But bailout is worthy of consideration (along with, arguably, foreclosure, subprime, and if compounds are legal, maybe even synthetic CDO).
Michael, on the topic of Sam Cooke, I recommend checking out this site, which compiled a handful of versions of Change Is Gonna Come for election day.
At the risk of being tarred and feathered - or the 21st century equivalent, having my IP address banned - I'd like to propose 'Obamania'.
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