January 2010

Language Links

With the page finally turned on 2009, language lovers (including those at Merriam-Webster) announced the word or phrase that best represents the year just ended.

Then there are the words of the decade: Slate's Ron Rosenbaum presented one overview of catchphrases of the decade, while members of the American Dialect Society, which claims to be the "longest-running vote of its kind in the Anglophone world" voted on both the Word of the Year and the Word of the Decade.

Finally, there are those words that annoy. Every year since 1976, Michigan's Lake Superior State University has released its helpful recommendation, a List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.