Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Will "Bailout" Be The Word Of 2008?

As another year draws to a close, the question on everyone's mind has to be:

What will 2008's big word be?

Last year, Merriam-Webster declared "w00t" (a 'word' I've never personally used, or even typed, until right now) as 2007's WOTY (that's "word of the year" for the acronym-challenged), whereas the American Dialect Society nominated "subprime" for that honour (a much better choice, if you ask me).

I've already started seeing bailout joke references appearing ("Where do I sign up for the comic writer bailout?"), and so I believe that it's a definite possibility for the podium. The word "credit" also got tossed around a lot, making it hard to rule out. If names are allowed in the competition (and I don't think they should be), then "Obama" would be an obvious choice.

So what word would you say deserves to be 2008's WOTY?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would have gone with Palin over Obama. For WOTY I would have gone with election or candidates as I think that dominated the news for the entire year. Interesting to think about.

Anonymous said...

And....it would be interesting to look back at the last 5 decades and try to come up with defining words for them, such as: Cold War, Vietnam War, Space Race, Beatles, Baby Boomers, Desert Storm, Monica, Stock Market or Tech Bubble....

So many choices - requires more thought!

Anonymous said...

Mother, Palin over Obama? Are you crazy! I know you just mean she was more prevalent and the media possibly focused on her even more than Obama, for a time. But looking back 10 or 100 years from now, I doubt she'll be remembered very much whereas Obama is pretty much akin to our generation's Abraham Lincoln. I really think he'll go down in history as one of the top 5 most memorable presidents.

Anonymous said...

that was a ridiculously early prediction

Kimota94 aka Matt aka AgileMan said...

An "early prediction"? Perhaps, although we're already 94% of the way through 2008, so do you really think something is going to pop in out of the blue in the final 6% of the year? I guess it's possible, but the second half of the year is often a pretty light "news time" (people are focused on shopping and spending time with family).

What made me think to ask the question was that many gaming sites are putting out their GOTY picks (for "game of the year") so clearly they're not waiting for midnight on Dec 31st...

Kimota94 aka Matt aka AgileMan said...

Sorry, "second half of the year" in that last comment was "second half of DECEMBER" when it was still in my head... bad fingers! BAD!!

Mike Marsman said...

Sadly, I'd be shocked if "maverick" wouldn't be considered for the WOTY.

Anonymous said...

Wagile.