Richard learned about "Podcast" being "Word of the Year" on a podcast...very cool. I learned about it from Richard.
Erin McKean, editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, said:
"Podcast was considered for inclusion last year, but we found that not enough
people were using it, or were even familiar with the concept. This year it's a
completely different story. The word has finally caught up with the rest of
the iPod phenomenon."
"Choosing the word of the year is incredibly difficult," said McKean. "Not
just because of the enormous amount of data we look at-everything from blogs
to technical journals to suggestions sent to dictionaries@oup.com-but because
everyone has such strong opinions about what makes a word Word of the Year
material. You'd be amazed at how hard our editors campaign for their
favorites. I'm surprised nobody tried to bribe me -- except that the only
thing I really want is more cool new words!"
Runners-up for the 2005 Word of the Year include:
bird flu (an often fatal flu virus of birds, esp. poultry, that is
transmissible from them to humans, in whom it may also prove fatal)
squick (cause immediate and thorough revulsion: "was anyone else squicked
by our waiter's piercings?")
sudoku (a logic-based puzzle consisting of squares that form grids within
a grid. Into each smaller grid, the numerals 1 through 9 are entered but not
repeated, and they may not be repeated in any row or column of the larger
grid.)
trans fat (fat containing trans-fatty acids, considered unhealthier than
other dietary fats.)
