Everyone already knows about this, because news is old 12 hours after it hits the wires. Nevertheless, it would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year is locavore (all you localvores need not apply).
Before you get too excited about the ascendancy of foodies and the environmental movement in general, consider the runners-up: bacn, cougar, mumblecore, and tase/taze are prime examples of the weak field. Wait, do you even know half of those words? Bacn is, according to the Oxford University Press blog, “email notifications, such as news alerts and social networking updates, that are considered more desirable than unwanted ‘spam’.” That is stupid. Also stupid is “cougar,” which already had a perfectly reasonable definition, but is now sullied by the following: “an older woman who romantically pursues younger men.” Oh, the humanity! Mumblecore is just generally unspeakable, although slightly higher-brow than tase/taze.
At the moment, locavore is trouncing localvore on Google, with 144k hits to a mere 53k. Ideally, we’d like to compare them again in six months to see if Oxford’s anointment has any effect on the proportion. But we will probably forget. Anyone recall the ‘06 word of the year?* Exactly.
Oxford Word Of The Year: Locavore [OUPBlog]
[Photo: as good an illustration of locavorism as any, by Julia Gran, in MSPMag]
* it was carbon neutral
