Top Words 2010: Announced By Global Language Monitor

The top words of 2010 were announced Sunday with the release of a survey by the Global Language Monitor. With an emphasis on global English, the Global Language Monitor analyzed trends in word usage.

Words are fun – sometimes when there isn’t exactly a word to describe something, new words get created. Sometimes though a new word is created because a person simply can’t come up with the correct word to use, so an accidental combination of real words becomes a new word by default. So what - or who - was the inspiration of the top words of 2010?

One of the most commonly used words of 2010 stemmed from the horrible oil spill disaster. “Spillcam” became a prominent word in the English language after an underwater camera captured images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Politician Sarah Palin combined two words – “refute” and “repudiate” to come up with “refudiate” – a non-word which also made the list.

Television’s Jersey Shore also sparked the common use of “guido” and “guidette.”

Remember those loud horns blown at the World Cup games in South Africa? They also made the list with the name vuvuzela.

Many new words, including Sarah Palin’s, are hybrids of two already existing words. Another example from the top 10 of 2010 is “snowmagedon” which was used to desribe the record snowfalls of last winter in northern Europe and the US east coast.

According to its website, the Monitor “tracks the frequency of words and phrases in social media, on the Internet, and in global print and electronic media and accesses proprietary databases.”

Paul JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor, said "Our top words this year come from an environmental disaster, the World Cup, political malapropisms, new senses to ancient words, a booming economic colossus and a heroic rescue that captivated the world for days on end. This is fitting for a relentlessly growing global language that is being taken up by thousands of new speakers each and every day," according to CNN.

The continuous development of language through various forms is endlessly fascinating.