It’s not the end of the decade yet but the American Dialect Society has decided that for it the word of the decade – that hasn’t yet finished yet – is Google.
That’s what the grey beards of ADS decided in a special meeting held at the end of last week – somewhat drowned out by the Consumer Electronic Show and such things as the Roxxxxxy robot.
According to the Baltimore philologists, or “lavengros”, the word of 2009 was “tweet” – a sound made by a garden bird such as a finch or a sparrow. In fact, “tweet” is a bit of a perdreau.
Grant Barrett, who presides over the New Words Committee, described both words as products of the Information Age. Blog could have been a contender but to google is commoner than to blog.
The landgrave of the ADS said: “Many people think ‘blog’ just sounds ugly.”
