Make sure to take a look at the other nominees for word of the year along with the nominees and winners in eight other categories.
From an American Dialect Society Announcement:
In its 23rd annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted “hashtag” as the word of the year for 2012. Hashtag refers to the practice used on Twitter for marking topics or making commentary by means of a hash symbol (#) followed by a word or phrase.
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Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as “vocabulary item” — not just words but phrases. The words or phrases do not have to be brand-new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year. The vote is the longest-running such vote anywhere, the only one not tied to commercial interests, and the word-of-the-year event up to which all others lead.
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In a companion vote, sibling organization the American Name Society voted “Sandy” as Name of the Year for 2012 in its ninth annual name-of-the-year contest. It refers to the superstorm that ravaged the East Coast.
Nominees and Vote Totals: 2012 Word of the Year and Other Categories
Word Of The Year
YOLO: acronym for “You Only Live Once,” often used sarcastically or self-deprecatingly 32
fiscal cliff: threat of spending cuts and tax increases looming over end-of-year budget negotiations 25
*#hashtag: a word or phrase preceded by a hash symbol (#), used on Twitter to mark a topic or make a commentary 45/118
Gangnam style: the trendy style of Seoul’s Gangnam district, as used in the Korean pop song of the same name 19
marriage equality: legal recognition of same-sex marriage 57/99
47 percent: portion of the population that does not pay federal income tax 31Most Useful
YOLO: acronym for “You Only Live Once,” often used sarcastically or self-deprecatingly 59/62
* -(po)calypse, -(ma)geddon: hyperbolic combining forms for various catastrophes 66/115
hate-watching: continuing to follow a television show despite having an aversion to it 39/
beardruff: dandruff from one’s beard 10Most Creative
mansplaining: a man’s condescending explanation to a female audience 54/90
alpacalypse: the Mayan apocalypse predicted for Dec. 21, 2012 (alpaca + -lypse) 50
*gate lice: airline passengers who crowd around a gate waiting to board 53/93
dancelexia: inability to pull off dance moves (such as misspelling “YMCA”) 36Most Unnecessary
*legitimate rape: type of rape that Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin claimed rarely results in pregnancy 94
Frankenstorm: term for Hurricane Sandy’s hybrid storm system (after Frankenstein’s monster) 14
HD: abbreviation for “high-definition,” used for things that could not be high-definition 21
feels: slangy shortening of “feelings” 20Most Outrageous
Dunlop effect: when one’s stomach protrudes over ill-fitting pants (“belly done lop over the belt”) 3
*legitimate rape: type of rape that Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin claimed rarely results in pregnancy 156
slut-shaming: attacking a woman for socially stigmatized sexual activity 2
butt-chugging: an alcohol enema, used in college fraternity hazing rituals 36Most Euphemistic
disruptive: destroying existing business models 3
Gray Thursday: name given to Thanksgiving as a shopping day before Black Friday 12
*self-deportation: policy of encouraging illegal immigrants to return voluntarily to their home countries 142
ratchet: slang term originally referring to “urban divas” now used to mean “ghetto” 7
evolution: change of opinion 21Most Likely to Succeed
fiscal cliff: threat of spending cuts and tax increases looming over end-of-year budget negotiations 8
superstorm: an unusually large and destructive storm, such as Hurricane Sandy 9
MOOC: acronym for “massive open online course” 4
*marriage equality: legal recognition of same-sex marriage 156
big data: large collections of digital information used for revealing behavioral insights 20Least Likely To Succeed
cray-cray: slangy shortening and reduplication of “crazy” 5
Gangnam style: the trendy style of Seoul’s Gangnam district, as used in the Korean pop song of the same name 5
Windows Metro: name originally used for the Windows 8 operating system 8
*phablet: mid-sized electronic device between a smartphone and a tablet 76/92
*YOLO: acronym for “You Only Live Once,” often used sarcastically or self-deprecatingly79/91
meggings: a blend for “male leggings” 22Election Words (New Category)
47 percent: portion of the population that does not pay federal income tax 64
Etch-a-Sketch: metaphor of reinvention used by Romney campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom 8
Eastwooding: photo fad inspired by Clint Eastwood’s unscripted speech at the RNC 10
Romney/Obama: names of candidates used for blends (Obamaloney, Obamageddon, Romnesia, Romney Hood) 13
*binders (full of women): term used by Romney in the second presidential debate to describe the resumes of female job candidates that he consulted as governor of Massachusetts 107
malarkey: nonsense, empty talk (as used by Biden in the vice-presidential debate) 8
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