The Current Discussion: Australians are voting online for a "Word of the Year" from a list of new words to be included in the dictionary: among the frontrunners, "Chindia", "globesity," and "password fatigue." Create your favorite new word of the year that tells us something about trends in your country.
I’d like to submit the following words for consideration.
Yanktipathy - [yank-tip-uh-thee] - noun. [Yankee + antipathy]
1. A natural, basic, or habitual repugnance of natives or inhabitants of the United States.
2. An instinctive contrariety or opposition in feeling to U.S. foreign policy, intervention, occupation, or the people responsible for it all. [see also CHENEY]
3. An object of natural aversion or habitual dislike to American social values, pop icons, fast food or sports.
4. Distaste for all things American, full stop.
Wiretrapped – [wahyuh r-trap-ing] – adjective [wiretap + trap]
1. A consequence of the U.S.-led War on Terror, describing the feeling by some to the surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of persons within the United States incident to the collection of foreign intelligence.
Wiresnapping - [wahyuh r-snap-ing] – verb [wiretapping + snap]
1. The move by telecommunications companies to cut off FBI access to wiretaps after the agency failed to pay half of nearly 1,000 FBI telecommunications bills, including one invoice for $66,000 at an unidentified field office. [see also DOH!]
Hot Dollar – [hot dol-er] noun
1. A term describing the inflation and devaluation of the U.S. dollar.
2. Ironic. Term used to describe the not-so-hot dollar
3. The name of a Southern Rapper from Hattiesburg, Mississippi known for his hit single “Streetz On Lock.”
Addictionet - [uh-dik-shuh -net] adjective [internet + addiction]
1. The potential for being enslaved to use of the Internet in a psychologically or physically habit-forming manner, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
2. Spending four hours a day, or more, online.
3. Also known as Internet addiction disorder (IAD) - a theorized disorder first addressed by Dr. Ivan Goldberg in 1995. In China, which is home to the world’s second largest online population after the U.S., rehab clinics have begun treating young men and women -- sometimes with low voltage jolts. Some experts in China believe as many as 2.5 million of their citizens suffer from Internet addiction.
Socioviralnet – [soh-seeol – vy-ral net] adjective [Social + viral internet videos]
1. The infectious sociological impact of viral internet videos sweeping the World Wide Web in recent years.
2. One of the major impacts the Internet has had on globalization.
3. The YouTube effect.
4. Videos that have evolved from online entertainment to news items. Among the big hits in 2007:
• Southern teen calling himself Chris Crocker imploring the media to “Leave Britney Alone!” – a reference to the recent meltdown of pop star Britney Spears.
• Miss Teen USA pageant contestant from South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin Upton’s response to a question about why Americans are unable to locate the U.S. on a map. Said Miss Upton: “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps." It only got worse.
• Obama’s Girl – Actress and model Amber Lee Ettinger lip-sings a provocative (satirical) dedication to the “B to the A to the R-A-C-K-O-B-A-M-A, Barack Obama.” In response, the presidential hopeful called it “"just one more example of the fertile imagination of the Internet.”
Campaign drain – [kam-peyn dreyn] verb
1. The gradual loss or strain impacting candidates in the longer-than-usual 2008 presidential race.
2. May be used as a strategy for winning votes. Eg. Hillary Clinton’s show of emotion the night before winning the New Hampshire primary may be considered a strategic show of campaign drain.
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