Now that it's 2008, it's safe to reveal the 2007 Word of the Year, as chosen by the language lovers at the AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY.
Last month, in THIS post, I noted that the prefix i- would be my choice for the WOTY. Well, i- was wrong. And so was I.
The 2007 Word of the Year is subprime. You can read the entire news release HERE. Not only did the whole mortgage mess help to make subprime the word of the year, it also led the linguists to create a whole new category devoted to terms related to real estate.
Even though i- was wrong, I will say that my premonition about a prefix was not far off target. The environmentally-friendly prefix green- took top honors in the category of "Most Useful Word." It was also voted "Most Likely to Succeed."
Another contender for Word of the Year was Facebook, which refers to the social networking Web site. It's a relatively new word, but it's a versatile one because "Facebook" can be used as a noun or a verb.
Here's all I'll say about Facebook. I just opened an account. So far, I have no friends.