Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year 2006

(Following on from an earlier post)

And the winner was:

muffin top

noun Colloquial the fold of fat around the midriff which, on an overweight woman, spills out over the top of tight-fitting pants or skirts.

According to the results page, "The Committee thought that the vivid imagery of this word with its sense of playfulness and the fact that it is an Australianism made it the clear winner."

But that's not all the Committee (or at least the person writing up the competition results) had to say. Said Committee gave honourable mention to three terms, the last of which was "plausible deniability", and the definition of that term was followed by something which I would call "a political statement" (I've added italics so you just can't miss it):

plausible deniability
noun a carefully crafted situation in which a member of government can deny any association with any illegal or unpopular activities carried out by servants of the government in the event that these activities become public.

This term was first used by the CIA in relation to their activities in the Kennedy Administration. It does seem to have become a key feature of the American, British and Australian governments over the last decade.

:) Go the Macquarie!

Word of the year

Do you know about The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year 2006? I found it by accident (searching for the online Book of Slang... which seems to have disappeared, damn it).

Competition is between 55 of the words/terms added to the dictionary last year, and aims to decide "the most valuable contribution to the English language in 2006". If you want a say, get there before voting closes at midnight on Sunday 21 January.

I've never even heard of most of the words.

:(

What the hell is "buildering", do you know? It's not actually one of the competition candidates, it's just sitting in the definition of one of them. (1)

And "pawedness"? (2)

And "nanna nap"? (3)

Out of 55 candidates, I only knew 6 words. That's so pitiful. Boo for me.

If I had to choose the eventual winner (the official vote doesn't ask you to do this), runner-up would be... "plausible deniability"!!

And Word of the Year 2006 would be... (put your hands together for a round of applause, please) ... "peak oil"!!

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(1) "a form of free climbing on the external walls of buildings"
(2) "laterality in animals, leading them to give preference to the right paw or the left paw"
(3) "a short sleep taken, often in the afternoon, in order to re-energise oneself" (Sounds like a fine idea, but why is it named after nannas? Men take naps. Do they want to be known as nannas? My grandfather was probably the Best Napper in the Entire Universe, and not only that, he could snore loud enough to wake the dead. It was always quite a performance, and especially amusing in a church setting.)