2009 Word of the Year Lists, Part I

In this past Friday's post about flexitarianism, I mentioned that the American Dialect Society named the word "flexitarian" the "most useful word of the year" in 2003. Well, the American Dialect Society has just released its list of candidates for Word of the Year for 2009. Included in the list under various categories are:

fail: A noun or interjection describing something
egregiously unsuccessful. Usually used as an
interjection: “FAIL!”

rogue: Someone who acts in an unexpected way.

twenty-ten: A pronunciation of the year 2010, as opposed
to saying “two thousand ten” or “two thousand and
ten.”

birther: A person who believes Barack Obama was not
born in the United States and, therefore, is
disqualified to be president.

and my favorite:


Dracula sneeze: Covering one’s mouth with the crook of
one’s elbow when sneezing, seen as similar to
popular portrayals of the vampire Dracula, in which
he hides the lower half of his face with a cape.



Complete list available at the American Dialect Society.


UPDATE:
Results are in; the 2009 Word of the Year is "tweet".
Also, the Word of the Decade is "google".