What a bummer. Oxford Dictionary just announced its choice for 2012 American Word of the Year. And the winner is…GIF.
What kind of a word is that you might well ask as you Google for a definition of this annoying acronym (Graphic Interchange Format). To use another bon mot from the past, I think it’s absolutely craptastic.
Whether you pronounce it with a hard or a soft “G”, GIF means to create a GIF file of an image or video segment. Who cares, right? I was totally underwhelmed by the chosen word.
The British Word of the Year is omnishambles, a much more creative and entertaining choice. This word was coined by English television writers and refers to any situation that is comprehensively mismanaged and characterized by blunders and miscalculations.
It was originally used to describe the events leading up to the London Olympics. Then it was adapted to mock the U.S. Republican Party, which was referred to as Romneyshambles. I’m sure it could also be applied to our own omnishambolic (adj.) Canadian Parliament.
Sadly the folks at Oxford don’t pick a Canadian word to honour although another acronym that made the short list this year is rumored to have Canuck roots. YOLO (You Only Live Once) has been popularized by northern hipsters, mostly as an annoying twitter hashtag.
It must be very satisfying to coin a new word or phrase that goes on to become shortlisted for Word of the Year. Newscasters are especially fond of inventing clever new ways to describe the mundane.
The Word of the Year doesn’t automatically go in the dictionary but many become widely used and some last for generations.
Everybody remembers Watergate. And how about Nipplegate at Super Bowl XXXVIII when Janet Jackson had that famous wardrobe malfunction.
Canadians will recall Robogate during the last election when all those questionable robot phone calls were made. The U.S. celebrated Weinergate when an elected representative Tweeted a protruding photo of himself in jockey shorts.
It’s easy to create new words. Just take a word that already exists and make creative changes. There are many inspirational suffixes to borrow.
For example, start with an ordinary vacation, drop the first two letters and then you have a staycation, a playcation, a golfcation or even a shopcation to Duluth.
Maybe you’ll get some time off work this winter for a stormcation or a heavy snowcation.
Then you have your –itudes. When you check your attitude it may become a snark-itude or a geek-itude or possibly a rude-itude.
Citizens of our fair city often display either a Thunder Bay North-itude or a Thunder Bay South-itude. There are even a select few who can boast a well-earned Westfort-itude. They can be seen walking around wearing University of Westfort t-shirts.
And let’s not overlook the –geddons and –pocalypses. Is a white Christmas around the corner or will we have a December melt-ageddon? During the last U.S. election voters were warned about Obamageddon and the Barrackalypse.
Some gifted speakers use –gasms to describe their apex of excitement. Local skiers recently experienced an early snowgasm. Others fly south in search of their next sun-gasm.
There are tea-gasms, soup-gasms and really, any kind of gasm you want including something called an ectoplasm-gasm. It is described as a spooky outpouring of ectoplasm and other ishy goo. Call Ghostbusters for more details.
The language we speak is a work in progress. It evolves to reflect our culture, our difficulties and our triumphs. When spoken properly and with a bit of humour, it can be a joy to behold.
With the possible exception of GIF, that is.
