Daily Bits

Twitter is Word of the Year 2009

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With 2009 a month away from ending, is it now safe to say that the year belongs to Twitter? Not only is Twitter the fastest growing website in terms of userbase and eyeballs, but it is also the second most searched term on Microsoft Bing’s top trending topics in 2009. But that’s not all, Twitter – the word itself has just been named the no.1 Word of 2009. Top Word of the Year was released by the Global Language Monitor based on its analysis which was completed in late November. The analysis used Global Language Monitor’s Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) – an algorithm for tracking words and phrases in the media and on the Internet. These includes blogs and social media sites.

Candidates for the Top Word of the Year were tracked based on frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

Ok, enough of the blabber and here we go with the rest of the Top Words of 2009 by the Global Language Monitor and their definitions:

  1. Twitter – the ability to encapsulate human thought in 140 character
  2. Obama – the word stem transforms into scores of new words like ObamaCare
  3. H1N1 – the formal (and politically correct) name for Swine Flu
  4. Stimulus – the $800 billion aid package meant to help mend the US economy
  5. Vampire – vampires are very much en vogue, now the symbol of unrequited love
  6. 2.0 – the 2.0 suffix is attached to the next generation of everything
  7. Deficit – lessons from history are dire warnings here
  8. Hadron – ephemeral particles subject to collision in the large Hadron Collider
  9. Healthcare – the direction of which is the subject of intense debate in the US
  10. Transparency – elusive goal for which many 21st  century governments are striving
  11. Outrage – in response to large bonuses handed out to “bailed-out” companies
  12. Bonus – the incentive pay packages that came to symbolize greed and execs
  13. Unemployed – and underemployed amount to close to 20% of US workforce
  14. Foreclosure – forced eviction for not keeping up with the mortgage payments
  15. Cartel – in Mexico, at the center of the battle over drug trafficking

It’s interesting to note that while Twitter is Global Language Monitor’s top word of 2009, Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year is “unfriend”. What an appropriate combination right?