Ms. Neville's Class Resources

…subprime!

As mentioned to 3rd period (and I think the rest of you would also find this interesting) a week or so ago, the American Dialect Society designates a new word of the year each year. Last year it was “plutoed,” and the year before it was “truthiness.” For definitions and explanations of those, as well as the complete lists of nominees and winners from other years, click here.

It’s interesting to see how our language changes as we need words for new phenomena. It’s also interesting to see how recently so many new words have come from simply “verbifying” nouns (ironically, “verbify” is the result of the “verbification” of the noun “verb.” Yikes. Take a minute to let your brain digest that.). If you want to hear the concept explained through the infamous “Don’t tase me, bro!” debacle at the University of Florida a few months ago , go here. Enjoy!

Filed under: fun, vocabulary |