Patents on the soles of your shoes...: WOTY 2019

Showing posts with label WOTY 2019. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Terminology: More ADS WOTTIES* 2019

The American Dialect Society elects WOTTIES* (Words of the Year) in six categories, beyond the WOTY (Word of the Year) Winner of them all category. Below, the American Dialect Society WOTTIES (indicated with an asterisk), including shortlists, in the Society’s six surveyed categories: 1. Political word of the year, 2. Most useful/Most likely to succeed, 3. Slang / Informal word of the year, 4. Most creative, 5. Euphemism of the year and 6. Digital Word of the Year.

POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR

* quid pro quo: exchange of favors (central to Trump/Ukraine impeachment scandal)
#IMPOTUS: derogatory reference to Trump (IMPeached President Of The United States)
squad: nickname for four House Democrats (Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, Tlaib)
Trumpschmerz: suffering induced by constant updates about the Trump administration

MOST USEFUL/MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

* ok boomer: retort to someone older expressing out-of-touch or condescending views
plant-based: made from plants, for food products marketed as meat alternatives
stan: to be devoted or enthusiastic about
zoomer: member of Generation Z

SLANG/INFORMAL WORD OF THE YEAR

* and I oop-: catchphrase of VSCO girls, expressing shock, surprise, or embarrassment (first used by drag queen Jasmine Masters)
hot girl summer: a call to live one’s best life (after Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion)
zaddy: gender-neutral variation of “daddy” for an attractive older person with money

MOST CREATIVE

* nobody: phrasal template mocking someone providing an unsolicited opinion
(X)-curious: interested in something
gerrymeandering: drawing convoluted congressional district lines for political gain
sksksk: keysmash exclamation, expressing laughter, awkwardness, or amazement

EUPHEMISM OF THE YEAR

* people of means: rich people (used by Starbucks executive Howard Schultz)
freedom gas/molecules of U.S. freedom: natural gas (used by Energy Dept. officials)
Heckboy: Hellboy (used on the marquee of a Tennessee movie theater)
self-partnered: single (used by Emma Watson)

DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEAR

* im: emoji representation of “impeach”
: facts (pun on “fax machine” emoji)

VSCO girl: young woman who posts trendy pictures of herself on the VSCO photo app

_______
(1) WOTTIES - Acronym, rhymes with "potty". Plural of WOTY - Word Of The Year.

References
American Dialect Society
https://www.americandialect.org/

2019 Word of the Year is “(My) Pronouns, ” Word of the Decade is Singular “They” as voted by American Dialect Society. American Dialect Society Press Release, Jan 2, 2020

https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

Monday, January 20, 2020

Terminology – ADS WOTTIES* 2019

For the past 30 years, the 131-year old American Dialect Society(ADS) has voted for the Word of the Year (WOTY) in several categories, on the occasion of the Society’s Annual Meeting, held a the beginning of each year. This year is no exception, although the ADS also voted for the Word of the Decade.

On both counts, the ADS voted for the emerging gender-inclusiveness of the English language, recognizing speech that expresses the multiplicity of identifies beyond binary “he” or “she”. Indeed, the ADS selected (My) pronouns as the Word of the Year 2019, and they/them (singular use) as Word of the Decade (2010-2019). Two terms that beckon explanations in their bid for urgent inclusion in everyone’s idiolect.

The term (My) pronouns is most extensively described on the website www.mypronouns.org . In a nutshell, the term (My) pronouns refers to the additional specification of pronominal preferences, when introducing one’s self. The specification of pronominal preferences when introducing one’s self or calling for introductions (e.g.; My name is Françoise, my pronoun is “she”, or “Please share your name and personal pronouns”) first arose in the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community as a way of resolving the arbitrariness of masculine/feminine third-person pronouns, remaining in the English language, and the assumptions held when mapping such arbitrariness, into contexts of gender fluidity, and onto other nonbinary, non-conforming categories of gender.

Specification of (My) pronouns is satisfactory to both speakers and interlocutors. Speakers are assured of being correctly addressed, including according to their preferences, while interlocutors are able to avoid missteps and errors. For example, beyond the LGBT community, (My) pronouns, is also most helpful to people with foreign names, the gender of which might appear a total mystery. Likewise, adding pronoun specification to an email sign-off (e.g.; Mackenzie, pronoun “he”), will also prevent much hesitation, alternatively confusion about gender address, for all the people with fashionable gender-neutral names of the decade, such as: Tracy, Cameron, Charlie , Sidney , Robin, Murphy, Tatum, Noah, Perry, Alex, Addison, Sterling, Bailey, Bobbie, Chris, Jesse, Sam, Taylor, etc…

Singular use of they/them and themself, the ADS-elected Word of the Decade, refers to one of the pronominal preferences crafted in the LGBT, non-binary, gender nonconforming community, used to express identity. A use that arises, precisely in an effort to promote gender-inclusive language use.

Incidentally, (My)pronouns, and the singular use of they/them is much more complicated in languages that are grammatically inflected for gender beyond pronouns. (Vincent, 2019 - Le Monde) French, for example, is inflected for the masculine and feminine in third person pronouns (singular and plural), adjectives, verbs and nouns! The noun “nurse”, for example, translates as infirmier (masculine) and infirmière (feminine), which means that new gender inclusive inflections also need to be crafted for certain nouns. In turn, according to the same principle, it also follows that new gender-inclusive inflections have to be crafted for adjectives and verbs.

Below, the shortlists for just the ADS Word of the Year and Word of the Decade categories.

WORD OF THE YEAR (2019)

* (my) pronouns: introduction for sharing one’s set of personal pronouns
ok boomer: retort to someone older expressing out-of-touch or condescending views
cancel: withdraw support from someone considered problematic or unacceptable
Karen: stereotype of a complaining, self-important white woman, typically a member of Generation X (also “Generation Karen”)

WORD OF THE DECADE (2010-2019)

* they: gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, particularly as a nonbinary identifier
#BlackLivesMatter: expression of protest over police violence against African Americans
climate: used in phrases related to the impact of climate change, including “climate crisis,”climate emergency,” and “climate strike”
emoji: small icon in electronic communication, used to convey information or emotional attitude, or as a playful substitution for words
meme: a shared cultural item in the form of a phrase, image, or video circulated online, often with humorous, creative alterations
#MeToo: expression of solidarity for women surviving sexual assault or harassment (coined by Tarana Burke)
opioid crisis: epidemic of opioid-related drug overdoses across the U.S.
selfie: a photograph that one takes of oneself, typically with a digital camera and shared on social media
woke: socially aware, especially about issues of racial and social justice (also used negatively to mock ostensibly enlightened attitudes)

__________

*WOTTIES – Plural of WOTY (Word of the Year). Rhymes with “potty”.

Reference

2019 Word of the Year is “(My) Pronouns, ” Word of the Decade is Singular “They” as voted by American Dialect Society. American Dialsect Society Press Release, Jan 2, 2020

https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf
Amercican Dialect Society
https://www.americandialect.org/

Pronouns matter

www.mypronouns.org

Vincent, C. ( July 19, 2019) Le genre gagne en fluidité. Le Monde
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2019/07/19/le-genre-gagne-en-fluidite_5491031_3232.html

Friday, November 29, 2019

Terminology – WOTTIES (3) Cambridge Dictionary WOTY 2019

The Cambridge Dictionary WOTY* 2019 is upcycling.

Upcycling is defined as “the activity of making new furniture, objects, etc. out of old or used things or waste material.” (CambridgeDictionary WOTY 2019). The Upcycle Movement will add, to stress the difference with recycling, "in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original". An upcycled higher value or quality, such as sustainability, for which Forbes investment watch has noted that "87% of US millennial Internet users are willing to pay more". For example, Addidas upcycles ocean plastic waste, spinning it into the yarn that the company uses to knit sports shoe uppers.

Cambridge Dictionary lexicographers recorded a 181% increase in the frequency of searches for the term upcycling, since it was added, in 2011, to the online Cambridge Dictionary. They also found that searches had doubled in the past year. A spike in usage attributed, on the one hand to the political connotations of the term upcycling, in regards climate change; and on the other hand, to the form of action that upcycling subsumes, which is perceived as highly desirable, and "feel good".

In fact, all of the terms on the Cambridge Dictionary shortlist of candidate WOTTIES** reflect the 2019 renewed interest in the politics of climate change, and youth-led commitment to action, as the following runner-up terms indicate.

carbon sink noun

an area of forest that is large enough to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere and therefore to reduce the effect of global warming

compostable adjective

something that is compostable can be used as compost when it decays

preservation noun

the act of keeping something the same or of preventing it from being damaged

plastic footprint

a measurement of the amount of plastic that someone uses and then discards, considered in terms of the resulting damage caused to the environment.

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For a primer on the WOTY upcycling, as one of several solutions to some of the root causes of climate change, consider the below video The Story of Solutions (2013), written by Annie Leonard and Jonah Sachs, directed by Louis Fox and produced by Free Range Studios. The Story of Solutions (2013) is one of the viral educational videos of The Story of Stuff Project, supported by the Tides Foundation.

* WOTY - An acronym that stands for "Word Of The Year". It rhymes with "potty".
** WOTTIES - Plural form of the acronym WOTY.

Reference

Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2019

https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2019/11/04/cambridge-dictionarys-word-of-the-year-2019/
Petro, G. (Feb. 8, 2019) Upcycling your way to sustainability - Forbes Magazine
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2019/02/08/upcycling-your-way-to-sustainability/
The Story of Stuff Project
https://storyofstuff.org/
The Story of Stuff (2007) [21:16]
https://youtu.be/9GorqroigqM
La historia de las cosas (2007) [20:45]
https://youtu.be/ykfp1WvVqAY
The Upcycle Movement (Our Story)
https://theupcyclemovement.com/pages/our-story
Tides foundation
https://www.tides.org/

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Terminology – WOTTIES (2) Collins Dictionary WOTY 2019 shortlist

No less interesting than the WOTY* is the shortlist of WOTY candidates. In other words, the 2019 Collins list of potential WOTTIES from which the WOTY is finally selected, “winner of them all”.

The following terms were shortlisted for the Collins Dictionary WOTY 2019 [Collins Word Lover’s blog(1)]:

bopo (ˈbəʊpəʊ) noun also spelt BoPo: a movement advocating the view that people should be proud of the appearance of their bodies, or any aspect of this, especially size

cancel (ˈkænsəl) verb: to publicly cease to acknowledge a person, organization, etc, esp on social media, in order to express disapproval of their activities or opinions

deepfake (ˈdiːpˌfeɪk) noun, verb: (noun) a technique by which a digital image or video can be superimposed onto another, which maintains the appearance of an unedited image or video; (verb) to superimpose one digital image or video onto another so that it maintains the appearance of an unedited image or video

double down (ˈdʌbəl daʊn) phrasal verb: to reinforce one’s commitment to a venture or idea in spite of opposition or risk

entryist (ˈɛntrɪɪst) noun, adjective: (noun) a person who joins an existing political party with the intention of changing its principles and policies; (adjective) relating to the practice of joining an existing political party with the intention of changing its principles and policies

hopepunk (ˈhəʊpˌpʌŋk) noun: a literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity

influencer (ˈɪnflʊənsə) noun: a person who uses social media to promote lifestyle choices, commercial products, etc to his or her followers

nonbinary (ˌnɒnˈbaɪnərɪ) adjective. Also spelt non-binary: relating to a gender or sexual identity that does not conform to the binary categories of male or female, heterosexual or homosexual

rewilding (riːˈwaɪldɪŋ) noun: the practice of returning areas of land to a wild state, including the reintroduction of animal species that are no longer naturally found there

Got a favorite?

* WOTY is an acronym that stands for Word of the Year. It rhymes with “potty”.

©Collins Dictionaries

References

Collins Word of the Year – The Collins word of the Year is ….

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

Collins Word Lover’s blog

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/word-lovers-blog/

Collins Word Lover’s blog (1) - Nov. 7, 2019 – Collins Dictionaires - Collins Word of the Year 2019 shortlist

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/word-lovers-blog/new/collins-word-of-the-year-2019-shortlist,580,HCB.html

Collins Word Lover’s blog (2) - Nov. 7, 2019 - Ian Brookes - From ‘Brexiety’ to ‘prorogation’: How Brexit has changed the way we use language in 2019

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/word-lovers-blog/new/from-brexiety-to-prorogation-how-brexit-has-changed-the-way-we-use-language-in-2019,577,HCB.html

Collins Word Lover’s blog (3) - Nov. 7, 2019 – Collins Dictionaires - The rich tapestry of language provides a varied Word of the Year 2019 list

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/word-lovers-blog/new/the-rich-tapestry-of-language-provides-a-varied-word-of-the-year-2019-list,578,HCB.html

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Terminology – WOTTIES 2019 (1) Collins Dictionary Word of the Year

T’is the WOTY* season anew! The Collins Dictionary lexicographers have just named Climate strike as WOTY 2019.

Climate strike, the winning Collins WOTY 2019, is defined variously as “a protest demanding action on climate change”, or "a form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change." (Collins Word of the Year)

Although the term appeared in 2015, in connection with the Paris UN Climate Change COP21 (Conference of the Parties), Collins lexicographers registered a 100-fold increase of the term, in 2019. A surge in usage attributed to youth activism, led by the young 16-year old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg.

Indeed, since 2018, following Thunberg's intervention (Thunberg, 2018), at the UN Climate Change COP24 meeting, in Katowice, Poland, hundreds of youth-led climate strikes have taken place, in more than 270 cities. Just this past Sept. 20th, 2019, on the occasion of the New York UN Climate Summit, youth strikes for climate change were attended by an estimated 4 million people, around the globe, from Mumbai to Manhattan (Kaplan, et al., 2019).

Collins dictionary lexicographers select the WOTY based on close observation of the Collins Corpus, a 4.5 billion word database, with a “huge range of sources of spoken and written English, including newspapers, radio and other types of media, from all over the world” (Collins Word Lover’s Blog). A database where public submissions of new words are both welcome, and vetted, for inclusion. The sorts of considerations that are part of the Collins Corpus monitoring process include: frequency, breadth of usage, breadth of sources, and lifespan of the term. Terms are rarely removed. They are indexed as obsolete or archaic if they have dropped out of use, and old fashioned if their usage is dropping.

* WOTY is an acronym for “Word of the Year”. It rhymes with “potty”.