Exciting linguistic developments of 2013

boing
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That is some kind of advanced punctuation going on in that paragraph. Whew.

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I’m pretty sure they got the etymology of splaining wrong. I’m willing to be its from I Love Lucy. As in, “Lucy you have some spraining to do!”

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Language is a living thing. It’s constantly evolving. Just as in biological evolution, though, there are some sports that are destined to lead nowhere and die off, and I think a few of these words fall into that “5-assed monkey” category.

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RIP language, c. Paleolithic era - 2013

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Had to do a double-take to make sure that wasn’t Jonathan Banks/Mike Ehrmantraut.

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In this case, http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/Dr._Alphonse_Mephesto

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These are all such unpleasant, joyless words intended to describe and be used in context of terrible things.

If these are 2013’s “most exciting” developments in terms of (American) language, then I’m glad the year is behind us. Either that or I think The American Dialect Society gets excited about some really distasteful words and ideas. Or maybe both?

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I thought maybe they won the lottery or something because slang is in a rut…but one man’s rut is another man’s excitement…

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Try reading Billy Bathgate. /hehe

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I was at the vote :smile:

@redfood: We were aware of Lucy, but this was in reference to using -splain as a suffix, like ‘mansplaining’ or ‘whitesplaining,’ which is a different usage.

@Samthebutcher: Definitely. We picked ‘Thanksgivvukah’ as Least Likely to Succeed since the event won’t be happening for another 70,000 years. The most 5-assed of monkeys.

@Glitch & others: The voting is far from a solemn occasion - there’s no need to be mourning language. New words and variation show how very much alive it is, and the Word of the Year vote is more to take note of that than anything else. :slight_smile:

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They left out “listicle”… both from the list and from the article format. Bravo.

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Yes, let’s all talk like we’re in Juno.

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Wait a sec!

Where’s ‘Adorkable’?

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It says 2013, not 2003.

Also, they left out “listicle” from their listicle. Isn’t that one of those paradoxes from set theory?

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The 5-assedest, surely? Unless 5-assedest is 5-asseder than 6-assedest I suppose.

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Isn’t the “drunk” part already implicit in “selfie”?

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What in hell is pet-shaming?

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“DIRECTOR CLAPPER” sounds like an item one would use on a movie set.