Oxford Languages is asking the public to vote for a word of the year. The choices, which for some reason Oxford lists out of alphabetical order: metaverse, #IStandWith, and goblin mode. Vote here.
My choice for word of the year: angst. As in a Ted Berrigan poem from A Certain Slant of Sunlight (Oakland, CA: O Books, 1988):
AngstMe too. “The news” is a nightmare.
I had angst.
Thus far two dictionaries have chosen their words of the year. Why didn’t Oxford Languages do likewise? Maybe they, too, had angst.
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December 5: The votes are in, and Oxford Languages has goblin mode for its word of the year. Oy and gevalt.
[“I had angst”: yes, that’s the whole poem.]
I vote for that poem to be Poem of the Year.
ReplyDeleteFrex = Fresca
I have an almost allergic reaction to the phrase "I stand with." Not sure why. Maybe because I first heard it when Rand Paul was filibustering, and "stand" rhymes with "rand."
ReplyDeleteI think of it as performative in the pejorative sense, as it doesn’t require you to do anything, not even literally stand. I voted for it though, as I couldn’t get with anything Zuckerberg, and goblin mode seems more appropriate to 2020 or 2021, when probably more people were inside all day in pajamas.These choices seem to me a slightly pathetic attempt to stir up interest, as when dictionaries announce new slangy words added.
ReplyDelete