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The American Dialect Society's "Word of the Year" Nominees
Greetings from Baltimore, where the American Dialect Society is holding its annual conference. Along with scholarly presentations about American linguistic varieties, the ADS is also making selections for Word of the Year (2009) and Word of the Decade (2000-09). ADS members fixed on a final list of nominees for the different categories that will be up for a vote on Friday.
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As the American Dialect Society gears up to vote for Word of the Year, the City Dictionary website has announced its own selection of "words with local flavor."
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Our own Mark Peters takes a look back at a decade in euphemisms, by trawling through the annual selections of "most euphemistic" words by the American Dialect Society — from courtesy calls to scooping technicians.
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When did shall go out of fashion as the first person marker for the future tense? Or was it ever in fashion? This month in the Lounge we look at the career of English's most mismanaged modal.
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Blog Excerpts
Scalia vs. "Choate"
Justice Antonin Scalia recently interrupted a lawyer during a Supreme Court oral argument to chastise him for using the word choate (the opposite of inchoate). What's Scalia's beef? Find out in the latest New York Times Magazine "On Language" column by Visual Thesaurus editor Ben Zimmer, now online here.
We welcome back linguist Neal Whitman, who has noticed that many educators are fond of "choice" language, as in "He made good choices." Neal plumbs the history of this usage and talks to teachers and administrators about how the words "choose" and "choice" have shifted in recent years.
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Blog Excerpts
Gift Words
Just in time for the holidays, Visual Thesaurus contributor Mark Peters has rounded up a selection of gift-related words and phrases for his latest "Wordtastic" column in Good Magazine — covering everything from Seinfeldian "regifting" to "shopper's block." Read it here.
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