By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : Used to describe a risky loan, “subprime” has been chosen as the Word of the Year 2007 by US linguists.
What went in favour of the word is that it burst out of the banking sector as the home loan crisis in the US turned into a global credit squeeze.
Word of the Year 2006 was “plutoed”, which means to be demoted or devalued.
The American Dialect Society favoured “subprime” over “facebook”, “water-boarding” and “Googleganger” at its annual convention Friday in Chicago.
“Subprime” means literally “less than ideal” and the adjective is a technical term used to describe loans – especially mortgages – made to borrowers with poor credit histories.
Among the runners up, “water-boarding” is a form of interrogation involving simulated drowning.
“Facebook” as a noun, verb or adjective was popular with younger linguists.
The society gave its “most creative word” award to “Googleganger” – meaning a person thrown up by a Google search on your name, but who is not you.
The society says it just charts words or phrases that have become prominent in a particular year, and is not telling people how to speak.
Other citations this year include:
a. Ninja – a poorly documented loan made to a high-risk borrower – someone with no income, no job or assets.
b. Wrap rage – anger brought on by the inability to open a factory-sealed package.
c. Tapafication – the tendency of restaurants to serve food in many small portions like tapas.
Word of the Year 2006 was “plutoed”, which means to be demoted or devalued.
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, comprises linguists, grammarians, historians and scholars, among others.
The society began choosing words of the year in 1990 for fun, not in an official capacity to induct words into the English language.