American Dialect Society Names ‘Occupy’ As 2011 Word Of The Year

by Josh Feldman | 10:15 am, January 8th, 2012

» 24 comments

Occupy Wall Street was undeniably one of the biggest news stories of 2011. The movement was an important factor in “The Protestor” being named Time Magazine’s 2011 Person of the Year. Well, the Occupiers are finally getting recognized by another important institution. Yes, that’s right. The American Dialect Society has announced that “occupy” is 2011′s word of the year because of its influence on the global zeitgeist over the past few months.

The final decision came after members gathered at an annual conference in Portland, where they took a vote to decide which word would be THE defining word of 2011. And there were certainly a great deal of captivating words to choose from.

“Occupy” won a runoff vote by a whopping majority, earning more votes than “FOMO” (an acronym for “Fear of Missing Out,” describing anxiety over being inundated by the information on social media) and “the 99%,” (those held to be at a financial or political disadvantage to the top moneymakers, the one-percenters).

After the vote was tallied, the chair of the organization’s New Words Committee acknowledged that “occupy” is “a very old word, but over the course of just a few months it took on another life and moved in new and unexpected directions, thanks to a national and global movement.” There were a great deal of words considered by the committee in a variety of categories, some more eyebrow-raising than others. For example, both “Tebowing” and “9-9-9″ were nominated as words of the year, but they pale in comparison to more outlandish terms submitted like Charlie Sheen‘s infamous “bi-winning.”

Recognized in the “Most Creative” category was the word “kardash,” defined as a unit of time lasting as long as Kim Kardashian‘s wedding. And one of the most outrageous submissions (because of its recognition in the “Most Outrageous” category) was the word “deather,” used to describe those who do not believe the official story of the death of Osama bin Laden.

h/t CNN

2011, 999, American Dialect Society, Charlie Sheen, Kardashian, Occupy Wall Street, Tebow, word, year

http://twitter.com/bohratom Bohr Atom

Just more of the typcial liberal bias in the media and press. You wont find the “tea party” anywhere mentioned as word of the year over the last few years but it has had 100000x more impact then ows has in the US. I mean just think a year before the tea party how washington thought, aka spend all you want and worry about paying for it later. Now the thinking is “first find a way to pay for it, then cut more”. Its a 180 degree turn by the politicians in washington because of the tea party. As far as ows goes the only thing I can think of is they have caused cities more taxes and payments to clean up after their mess.
http://www.storminsmorningjava.blogspot.com/ stormin1961

Wasn’t “occupy” the liberal lefts favorite word to describe our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Didn’t I hear the troops describe as “occupiers” rather than “liberators” all the time by the democrats and the leftist media?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4IEH4WSKGIN6TVMU4DNS77TL4U melina

@twitter-21803786:disqus Would you like to work from home? Read more here: http://1url.com/pUx and you will find out how to get a nice income every month.
Anonymous

Shut up, bagger.

The occupy wall street went global. Your tea party was eclipsed. The tea party would have made sense if they did not succumb to corporate daddies and hardcore right-wing ideals. There was also the racial element where the tea party was no where during Bush but came alive about 5 months into Obama’s regime- plus the racist signs
Anonymous

lol…..who were the troops liberating in Afghanistan and Iran? “Occupiers” wasn’t the word used to describe the war, it was “imperialist”
Anonymous

Shut up, spammer!!!
Anonymous

*LOL* I love how the small far-leftist groups in this country think they can dictate our culture to us via various stupid “societies”. They’re trying to make “Occupy” happen, but it’s just not fetch :-P

Nobody cares about these whiny brats and the foreign and domestic communists who are herding them like sheep. In fact, the more people learn about these whiny brats and their communists leaders, the less people like them. Funny how all the polls showing how “popular” the movement was disappeared quickly after their popularity dropped below the Tea Party’s a couple months ago.
Anonymous

*LOL* Nobody cares about the fake movement’s staged “global” protests. Douchebags in the Socialist European Union can’t vote in our elections, and those Socialists have their own problems to deal with because their ideology is collapsing around them.
Anonymous

EPIC FAIL!!!

I live in in the EU (UK) and the UK is not socialist! Stop watching Fox News!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EX3km583Dw&feature=related

Furthermore, you can’t “stage” a global protest! Staging a county protest is hard, not to mention a country and furthermore a continent and worst, on a global scale.
http://www.songsforamerica.net/photogallery/funny%20middle%20finger/Funny_Finger_anyquestions.gif AliveStillKickin

In keeping with the same train of thought……”Human debris” is the phrase of the year.
daveinboca

The happy horse manure of this AstroTurf “movement” has been sucking wind since the fecal attacks against NYPD vehicles was caught & went viral on YouTube. The Marxist media keeps pumping air into OWS’s shredded tires, but it’s still a tiny minority of scofflaws and losers making messes & disturbing the peace without permits. The Tea Party types cleaned up after themselves and got a GOP Congress in 2010. The a$$hats in Ows will get a GOP POTUS & Senate elected in 2012, in spite of media morons blowing Ows horns!!!

Megamoron Diane Sawyer said that Ows was now in “over 1000 countries.”. Last anyone checked, there were less than 200 on Planet Earth. Anyone believe this bimbo is a Megatron?
daveinboca

You’re correct. The UK is a commie bureaucratic manure pile with a silly political facade which doesn’t represent the poor sod hole citizenry, or is it “subjects,” ground to bits by a PC constabulary which arrests school kids for inadvertent “anti-Muslim slurs.”. I recently lived in the UK for a year and it is a far cry and pale shadow of it’s former polite polity.
Anonymous

LMAO………Yeah, the almighty USA where gun crime is normal and the police pepper spray you for fun. The USA, where millions and millions of people have no access to good healthcare. The USA where the media continuously dumb down the citizens to go to war and be racist towards minorities and hostile to poor people.

The UK is not perfect and neither is USA. However, the UK is not socialist/communist.
Anonymous

You are right – the dozens of people around the world have made truely monumental and indisputalble changes in world socio-economic culture.

These changes they have single-handedly made are:

(rudeboy11 – please fill out a list. I have given you an adequate introduction . . . .)
Anonymous

You misspelled a word. It is spelled “feces,” not “debris”
http://twitter.com/bohratom Bohr Atom

F-OFF Jerk.. You don’t have to attack someone for just pointing out the facts.
Anonymous

?????????????????????????

wtf?????????
Anonymous

Why so butthurt?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JECHcrzu65w/TmZ05xToTSI/AAAAAAAAAgc/dQwpoVWnpW8/s1600/bros.jpg
Anonymous

rudeboy11 the wonderful images of the OWS crowd crapping on cop cars or the reports of the 14 year old girl being raped. How the TEA party was somehow racist but the occupy had the crowds also being completely white . This just shows how stupid and blinded the loony left are!

I am so happy we have Fox News otherwise it would be like North Korean with news in this country. They would only Praise our great leader with no questions asked… !
Anonymous

Lmao……..

The same fox news that allowed Megyn Kelly to say that pepper spray is essentially a food product? She loved it when they pepper sprayed the OWS.

OWS did not have the numbers of racist signs at their protest the tea party had.

Fox News lies……accept the truth
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_45S32GWGDRUJIL6E2U4HOZW4BM Bob

durn you and yer durn devil lib’rul dialect society bias!

I swear – baggers see a conspiracy in everything.
Anonymous

How about everyone stops bashing groups they don’t like. Neither group is racist and neither group is astroturfed.
Anonymous

I’m a conservative, and that term is accurate. Why the hell do you think the Republican Party is tearing at its seems because they can’t agree whether the Iraq War was worth it or not?
Anonymous

I think we need to Occupy a Tea Party. Or have a Tea Party on Wall Street.