Here are the words chosen by the American Dialect Society as 2007’s best words or phrases:
_ Word of the Year: Subprime, an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage or investment.
_ Most Useful: Green, designates environmental concern.
_ Most Creative: Googleganger, person with your name who shows up when you Google yourself.
_ Most Unnecessary: Happy Kwanhanamas, Happy Holidays. Kwanza + Hanukkah + Christmas.
_ Most Outrageous: Toe-tapper, a homosexual. Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, was arrested in June for an encounter in a Minneapolis airport bathroom in which toe-tapping was said to have been used as a sexual come-on.
_ Most Euphemistic: Human terrain team, a group of social scientists employed by the U.S. military to serve as cultural advisers in Iraq or Afghanistan.
_ Most Likely To Succeed: Green, designates environmental concern.
_ Least Likely To Succeed: Strand-in, protest duplicating being stranded inside an airplane on a delayed flight.
_ Real Estate/Mortgage/Loan Words (New Category): Subprime.
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