Everybody’s Got Their Own Word of 2008

Last week, Oxford University Press declared that “hypermiling,” a neologism describing “[an] attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques,” was 2008′s word of the year, noting its relevance to American drivers faced with radically expensive gas prices. Among the terms determined to be not quite as relevant, though still quite trendy, were online jargon like “link bait” and “tweet,” as well as “frugalista,” “toxic debt,” and the use of “wardrobe” as a verb.

Not to be outdone, the folks at Webster’s New World Dictionary are set to make their own judgment of our new vocabulary—on December 1, they’re planning a satellite radio tour to unveil their choice for word of the year, which has currently been narrowed down to five candidates, as delineated in this video…

Of the five candidates, we are rooting for “overshare” for no other reason than that the person who arguably did more than anyone to bring that word into mainstream usage is a former GalleyCat editor.

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