The Committee’s choice of Word of the Year 2007 is:
pod slurping |
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noun the downloading of large quantities of data to an MP3 player or memory stick from a computer. |
In this increasingly tech-savvy world we live in, it seems pod slurping really is the new memory bank for us busy bees. Why carry around vast reams of documents, or CDs or anything for that matter, when you can download absolutely everything!
Pod slurping has an inventive and sensuous appeal. The committee felt that the most important criterion for word of the year should be linguistic creativity and evocativeness, rather than simple worthiness or usefulness. Pod slurping also dips its lid to pod, a potent little word of our times.
The Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Committee comprises:
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Professor Gavin Brown
Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney, Professor Stephen Garton
Publisher of the Macquarie Dictionary, Susan Butler.
The Committee would like to give honourable mention to:
infomania
noun the tendency to give immediate attention to incoming messages such as email, text messages, etc., resulting in constant distraction and a corresponding drop in the recipient’s attention levels and work performance. [info(rmation) + –mania]
–infomaniac, noun –infomaniacal, adjective
Infomania is a neat coinage for an obsession to which many of us can so easily succumb, and a word which was created in the early 1980s – very much ahead of its time.
carbon footprint
noun the carbon dioxide emissions for which an individual or organisation can be held responsible, as by their travel, fuel consumption, diet, energy requirements, etc.
Obviously carbon footprint is one of the environmental words which is of significance to us all, and a very useful term to express a new social concept.
The People’s Choice Award for 2007 goes to:
password fatigue |
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noun a level of frustration reached by having too many different passwords to remember, resulting in an inability to remember even those most commonly used. |
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Password fatigue was the most popular word in the online voting, clearly registering a widespread dilemma of the online world. |
Category winners:
| Business | infomania |
| Carbon Terms | carbon footprint |
| Colloquial | floordrobe |
| Eating and Drinking | tart fuel |
| Environment | food mile |
| Fashion | arse antlers |
| General Interest | password fatigue |
| Health | incidental exercise |
| Media | fauxtography |
| Music | nerdcore |
| Online | cyber cheating |
| Politics | Great Firewall of China |
| Social Scene | slummy mummy |
| Specialist Terms | facial mapping |
| Sport | cyberathlete |
| Technology | bloatware |
Download the pdf below to view all the entries considered for Word of the Year 2007.
