American Dialect Society

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The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it."[1] The Society publishes the academic journal, American Speech.

[edit] Word of the Year

Since 1991, the American Dialect Society has designated one or more words to be the word of the year, the year's most important word or expression in public discussion. They include:

1990: bushlips (similar to "bullshit" -- an insincere political remark, stemming from President George H.W. Bush's 1988 "Read my lips: no new taxes" promise, which he did not keep)
1991: mother of all (as in Saddam Hussein's "mother of all battles" promise)
1992: not! (meaning "just kidding")
1993: information superhighway
1994: cyber, morph (to change form)
1995: web, newt (to act aggressively as a newcomer)
1996: Mom (as in soccer mom)
1997: millennium bug
1998: e- (as in e-mail)
1999: Y2K
2000: chad (from the 2000 Presidential Election controversy in Florida)
2001: 9-11 [2]
2002: weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) [3]
2003: metrosexual [4]
2004: red state, blue state, purple state (from the 2004 presidential election) [5]
2005: truthiness, originally popularized on The Colbert Report. [6] The Oxford English Dictionary includes an entry for this word with one citation in 1824.

The society also selects words in other categories that vary from year to year, such as Most Unnecessary, Most Outrageous, and Most Likely to Succeed.