The Buzzwords of 2008

Lexicographer Grant Barrett hosts “A Way With Words” on public radio.  HIs specialty is slang and new words.  He compiled a list of the buzzwords of 2008.  They include:

Largely used online, this is a verb turned into a mass noun, as in “A bucket of fail.” Common forms include epic fail, meaning a huge overall tendency toward failure or a great example of failure, and FAIL! as an interjection or derogation. Often an antonym of win, seen online in forms like “Full of win!” which means, “It’s good!”

A penalty or salary cut suffered by a business executive whose company suffers market setbacks or failures. The opposite of a bonus. Actuaries used the term as early as the 1960s.

An adornment of something that can’t be made pretty. When Barack Obama said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” many people assumed he meant Sarah Palin, who has said that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick.

What are your favorites?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.