Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Terminology

The “linguists, lexicographers, grammarians, etymologists, researchers, writers, editors, students and independent scholars” of the American Dialect Society (ADS) have voted! As a reminder, the ADS was founded in 1889, for the purposes of studying the English language of North America, its variation and intersections with other languages and dialects.

This year, the ADS-selected Word of the Year (WOTY) 2018 resonates with the organization's longstanding activity, at the frontiers of language contact. The term selected is tender-age camp/shelter/facility, referring to “a government detention center for asylum seekers’ children”, a euphemistic term, arising within the context of the 2018 US border situation with Mexico.

Tender-age camp/shelter/facility is winner-of-them-all, in the category of WOTY 2018, after competing with the following, no less politically-sourced shortlist of terms:

yeet: indication of surprise or excitement
(the) wall: proposed barrier along the US/Mexico border to prevent illegal crossings (Lu, 2018 - NYTimes)
X strong: expression of solidarity after a tragedy in a particular place, as in “Pittsburgh Strong”
Individual 1: pseudonym for Trump in documents from the Mueller investigation
white-caller crime: the phenomenon of white people calling police on black people for doing mundane things (Harriot, 2018 - The Root)

The ADS nominates and selects additional WOTTIES in the following selected categories, including EMOJI of the year. The asterisks indicate the winning WOTY, within the category shortlist of competing terms. The WOTTIES vote is organized by the ADS Committee on New Words(1), chaired by Ben Zimmer, columnist at The Wall Street Journal. The vote has taken place each year, since 1990, on the occasion of the Society's Annual Meeting, currently underway this year, in New York City, on Jan 3-6, 2019.

POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR

* (the) wall: proposed barrier along the US/Mexico border to prevent illegal crossings (Lu, 2018 - NYTimes)
nationalist: displaying a staunch belief in one’s own nation (used by Trump and supporters), also shortlisted for a Merriam Webster 2018 WOTY
blue wave: major Democratic electoral gain (Balz, 2018 - The Washington Post)
caravan: a procession of Central American asylum-seekers to US/Mexico border (BBC.com, 2018)
lodestar: guiding principle (used in op/ed by anonymous White House staffer), also shortlisted for a Merriam-Webster 2018 WOTY

DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEA

* techlash: the backlash against tech innovators (Foroohar, 2018 - Financial times)
demonetize: remove ads from a YouTube channel to deprive the creator of revenue
blackfishing: pretending to be black on social media by using makeup and hair products (Virk & McGregor, 2018, BBC)
deepfake: realistic digitally composed video used to misrepresent someone
finsta: fake Instagram account

MOST USEFUL

* Voldemorting: avoiding mention of unpleasant person or topic by using a replacement term. The term is eponymic, borrowed from Lord Voldermort, the main antagonist character in the Harry Potter books. Lord Voldemort is You-know-Who, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. (McCulloch, G. 2018, Wired)
himpathy: the flow of sympathy away from female victims toward their male victimizers (Germano, 2018 - Chronicle of Higher Education)
orbiting: ending communication with someone while still monitoring them on social media
preferred pronoun: a pronoun that a person opts to use for himself/ herself/ themself.etc.
situationship: undefined or unlabeled personal relationship
self-care: care for oneself

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

* single-use: made to be used only once and destroyed, also the Collins Dictionary WOTY 2018.
climate grief: negative feelings caused by climate-change-related weather events
cli-fi: science fiction relating to climate change
hothouse Earth: a scenario of runaway global warming

MOST CREATIVE

* white-caller crime: the phenomenon of white people calling police on black people for doing mundane things (Harriot, 2018 - The Root)
girther: person skeptical of the president’s reported weight and height
procrasti-: related to procrastination
today years old: an indication that someone has just recently learned something
treasonweasel: an epithet for a traitorous person

EUPHEMISM OF THE YEAR

* racially charged: circumlocution for “racist”
executive time: presidential downtime
Individual 1: pseudonym for Trump in documents from the Mueller investigation
tender-age shelter/ camp/ facility: government detention center for asylum-seekers’ children

HASHTAG OF THE YEAR

* #nottheonion: reporting something true that seems like satire from The Onion
#neveragain: call for gun-control measures after the Parkland shooting
#thankunext: expressing gratitude and readiness to move on (from Ariana Grande)
#timesup: movement protesting sexual assault

EMOJI OF THE YEAR

*thinking face (indicating bemused pondering)

lobster (adopted by trans community)

nail polish (indicating air of nonchalance)

facepalm (indicating exasperation, disbelief)

Note (1): Zimmer points out that although some of the winning and contending WOTTIES are not new to the English language of North America, it is the new and notable uses or combinations of terms that make them WOTY candidates and winners. The selection captures prominence of these terms in the 2018 "public discourse and preoccupations" (ADS 2018 WOTY Press Release).

References

ADS – WOTY 2018 Press Release (Jan 4, 2019)

https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2018-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

ADS – All the Words of the Year, 1990 to the present

https://www.americandialect.org/woty/all-of-the-words-of-the-year-1990-to-present
Balz, D. (Sept. 3, 2018) Eight questions for the midterm elections: A blue wave or not?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/8-questions-for-the-midterm-elections-a-blue-wave-or-not/2018/09/03/79d2ca88-ad64-11e8-b1da-ff7faa680710_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.aff3ada08dae
BBC.com (Nov. 26, 2018) Migrant Caravan: What is it and why does it matter?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45951782

Ben Zimmer: Columnist, The Wall Street Journal