Global Language Monitor
Encyclopedia
The Global Language Monitor (GLM) is an Austin
, Texas
-based company that collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language
. It is particularly known for its Word of the Year
, political analysis, college and university rankings, High Tech buzzwords, and media analytics.
in 2003 by Paul J.J. Payack, the GLM describes its role as "expert analysis on language trends and their subsequent impact on politics, culture and business, including the PQ Index/Indicator, analysis of media coverage of major, worldwide events, the rise of Global English and its march to its 1,000,000th word, the Chinglish Phemomenon, Global yoofSpeak, and many others". In April 2008, GLM moved its headquarters from San Diego to Austin.
.
GLM announced its Top Words of the Year for 2011 on November 9, 2010. The Word of the Year was 'Occupy'. The Top Phrase of the Year was 'Arab Spring
'. The Top Name of the Year was 'Steve Jobs
'.
The Top Words of 2011 (WOTY)
Rank/Word/Comments
The Top Phrases of 2011
Rank/Word/Comments
The Top Names of 2011
Rank / Name / Comments
Top Words of the Decade
Climate Change
was top phrase; Heroes
was the top name of the first decade of the 21st century.
Previous Words of the Year include:
2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Spillcam, No. 2 Vuvuzela
, No. 3 The Narrative
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change
, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao
, paramount leader of hina, No. 2 iPad
, No. 3 Barack Obama
2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter
, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama
, No. 2 Michael Jackson
, No. 3 Mobama
2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change
, No. 2 Bailout , No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami , No. 2 Global Warming
, No. 3 “Yes, We Can! ”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama
, No. 2 George W. Bush
, No.3 Michael Phelps
2007:
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid
(representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore
2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur
2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee
No. 2: Tsunami
No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God
2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove
2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe , No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein
, No. 2 Dubya
2002:
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)
2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros
2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)
.
The Top Words of the Decade from 2000–2009
Word/Year/Comments
1. global warming
(2000) Rated highly from Day One of the decade
2. 9/11 (2001) Another inauspicious start to the decade
3. Obama-
(2008 ) The US President’s name as a ‘root’ word or ‘word stem’
4. bailout (2008) The Bank Bailout was but Act One of the crisis
5. evacuee/refugee
(2005) After Katrina, refugees became evacuees
6. derivative
(2007) Financial instrument or analytical tool that engendered the Meltdown
7. google
(2007) Founders misspelled actual word ‘googol’
8. surge
(2007) The strategy that effectively ended the Iraq War
9. Chinglish
(2005) The Chinese-English Hybrid language growing larger as Chinese influence expands
10. tsunami
(2004) Southeast Asian Tsunami took 250,000 lives
11. H1N1
(2009) More commonly known as Swine Flu
12. subprime (2007) Subprime mortgages were another bubble to burst
13. dot.com
(2000) The Dot.com bubble engendered no lifelines, no bailouts
14. Y2K (2000) The Year 2000: all computers would turn to pumpkins at the strike of midnight
15. misunderestimate (2002) One of the first and most enduring of Bushisms
16. chad
(2000) Those Florida voter punched card fragments that the presidency would turn aupon
17. twitter
(2008) A quarter of a billion references on Google
18. WMD (2002) Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
19. blog
(2003) First called ‘web logs’ which contracted into blogs
20. texting (2004) Sending 140 character text messages over cell phones
21. slumdog (2008) Child inhabitants of Mumba’s slums
22. sustainable (2006) The key to ‘Green’ living where natural resources are never depleted
23. Brokeback (2004) New term for ‘gay’ from the Hollywood film ‘Brokeback Mountain’
24. quagmire (2004) Would Iraq War end up like Vietnam, another ‘quagmire’?
25. truthiness
(2006) Stephen Colbert’s addition to the language appears to be a keeper
Also worth noting: ’Embedded’ (2003) to embed reporters with US Troops
The Top Phrases of the Decade from 2000–2009
Word/Year/Comments
1. climate change
(2000) Green words in every form dominant the decade
2. Financial Tsunami (2008) One quarter of the world’s wealth vanishes seemingly overnight
3. ground zero
(2001) Site of 9/11terrorist attack in New York City
4. War on Terror
(2001) Bush administration’s response to 9/11
5. Weapons of Mass Destruction
(2003) Bush’s WMDs never found in Iraq or the Syrian desert
6. swine flu
(2008) H1N1, please, so as not to offend the pork industry or religious sensitivities!
7. “Let’s Roll!” (2001) Todd Beamer’s last words before Flight 93 crashed into the PA countryside
8. Red State/Blue State (2004) Republican or Democratic control of states
9. carbon footprint
(2007) How much CO² does an activity produce?
10. shock-and-awe (2003) Initial strategy of Iraq War
11. Ponzi scheme
(2009) Madoff’s strategy reaped billions & heartache
12. Category 4 (2005) Force of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans’ seawalls and levies
13. King of Pop (2000) Elvis was the King, MJ
the King (of Pop)
14. “Stay the course
” (2004) Dubya’s oft-stated guidance for Iraq War
15. “Yes, we can
!” (2008) Obama’s winning campaign slogan
16. “Jai Ho
!” (2008) Shout of joy from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
17. “Out of the Mainstream” (2003) Complaint about any opposition’s political platform
18. cloud computing
(2007) Using the Internet as a large computational device
19. threat fatigue (2004) One too many terrorist threat alerts
20. same-sex marriage
(2003) Marriage of gay couples
1. HTTP — HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML
(HyperText Markup Language) files.
2. Flash — As in Flash Memory
. “Flash’ is easier to say than “ I brought the report on my EEPROM chip with a thin oxide layer separating a floating gate and control gate utilizing Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling”.
3. God Particle – The Higgs boson
, thought to account for mass. The God Particle has eluded discovery since its existence was first postulated some thirty years ago.
4. Cloud Computing
– Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet
. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)
5. Plasma
(as in plasma TV) — Refers to a kind of television screen technology that uses matrix of gas plasma cells, which are charged by differing electrical voltages to create an image.
6. IPOD
– Apple maintains that the idea of the iPod was from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
7. Megapixel – One million pixels or picture elements.
8. Nano – Widely used to describe anything small as in nanotechnology
. Like the word ‘mini’ which originally referred to the red hues in Italian miniature paintings, the word nano- is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’.
9. Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.
10. Virtualization – Around since the late ‘70s, virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O.
On November 19, 2008 Global Language Monitor announced the most confusing yet frequently cited high tech
buzzwords of 2008 to be cloud computing
, green washing, and buzzword
compliant followed by resonate, de-duping, and virtualization. Rounding out the Top Ten were Web 2.0
, versioning, word clouds, and petaflop. The most confusing Acronym for 2008 was SaaS
(software as a service).
On 14 October 2007 GLM released a list of the most confusing high tech
terms and buzzword
s. The words included:
iPod
,
flash
,
cookie
,
nano
and
kernel,
followed by
megahertz
,
cell
(as in
cell phone
),
plasma
,
de-duplication
and
Blu-Ray
.
Other terms being tracked included
terabyte
,
memory,
core
,
and head crash
.
The most confusing acronym was found to be SOA
, for service-oriented architecture
, an acronym which IBM
published a book about.
The studies are released each year on the anniversary of the cookie, the invention that made the World Wide Web
practical for widespread surfing
, communication, and e-commerce
.
, and Jesse Sheidlower
and Benjamin Zimmer
. on the grounds that since there is no generally accepted definition of a word, there can never be a definitive count. However, in December 2010 a joint Harvard/Google study found the language to contain 1,022,000 words and was expanding at the rate of 8,500 words per year. The difference between the Google/Harvard estimate and that of the Global Language Monitor is about thirteen thousandth of one percent.
The finalists, which met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations, were:
1. Web 2.0
. 2. Jai Ho!
3. N00b
. 4. Slumdog
. 5. Cloud Computing
. 6. Carbon Neutral. 7. Slow Food
. 8. Octomom
. 9. Greenwash
ing. 10. Sexting
. 11. Shovel ready
. 12. Defriend. 13. Chengguan. 14. Recessionista. 15. Zombie Banks
.
Critics noted that the target date had been changed a number of times from late in 2006 to early in 2009. It was also criticized on grounds that a count is impossible because "word" is not a scientifically valid concept. Google addressed this situation by counting the words in the 15 million scanned texts in their corpus. Global Language Monitor states the general criteria for inclusion on its site, maintaining that it is simply updating the established criteria for printed dictionaries beginning with the works of Samuel Johnson
and Noah Webster
.
The New York Times described the PQI as "an algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet in relation to frequency, context and appearance in global media. It is a weighted index that takes into account year-to-year increases and acceleration in the last several months". In general terms, GLM describes its Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), used to run its analytics on global language trends and , as a weighted index, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity, using frequency data on words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet
, and throughout the blogosphere
, as well as in proprietary databases (Factiva
, Lexis-Nexis, etc.). It can also create "signals" that can be used in a variety of applications.
, in its many variations. GLM described Obama- as a "root" for words including obamanomics, obamican, obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, Obamafy, obamamania and obamacam. GLM announced it to be an accepted word, once it met the group's published criteria: a minimum of 25,000 citations in the global media, as well as achieving the necessary 'breadth' and 'depth' of citations.
rankings of the top 300 U.S. colleges and universities according to their internet brand equity
,
Universities (2012):
Rank/University/Previous Ranking
Colleges (2012):
Rank/College/Previous Ranking
The Top Global Fashion Capitals (2011):
Ranking / City / Previous Ranking
and 15 Top All-Time Bushism
s, and many others.
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
-based company that collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. It is particularly known for its Word of the Year
Word of the year
The word of the year, sometimes capitalized as Word of the Year and abbreviated WOTY or WotY, refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word or expression in the public sphere during a specific year....
, political analysis, college and university rankings, High Tech buzzwords, and media analytics.
History
Founded in Silicon ValleySilicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
in 2003 by Paul J.J. Payack, the GLM describes its role as "expert analysis on language trends and their subsequent impact on politics, culture and business, including the PQ Index/Indicator, analysis of media coverage of major, worldwide events, the rise of Global English and its march to its 1,000,000th word, the Chinglish Phemomenon, Global yoofSpeak, and many others". In April 2008, GLM moved its headquarters from San Diego to Austin.
Top Words, Phrases and Names of the Year
Since 2000, the Global Language Monitor (GLM) has been selecting the Top Ten Words, Phrases and Names of the Year. To select these words and phrases it uses a statistical analysis of language usage in the worldwide print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the Blogosphere, including Social mediaSocial media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
.
GLM announced its Top Words of the Year for 2011 on November 9, 2010. The Word of the Year was 'Occupy'. The Top Phrase of the Year was 'Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
'. The Top Name of the Year was 'Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
'.
The Top Words of 2011 (WOTY)
Rank/Word/Comments
- Occupy – ‘Occupy’ has risen to pre-eminence through Occupy Movement, the occupation of Iraq, and the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’.
- DeficitDeficitA government budget deficit is the amount by which some measure of government revenues falls short of some measure of government spending.If a government is running a positive budget deficit, it is also said to be running a negative budget surplus .-Primary deficit, total deficit, and debt:The...
– Growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of the developed world. - Fracking – Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method for extracting fossil fuels from hitherto unreachable deposits.
- DroneDrone-Nature:The male sex of social Hymenopterans, such as a* Drone * male wasp* male ant-Chemicals:An abbreviation referring to one of two psychoactive drugs:* Mephedrone* 4-Methoxymethcathinone, commonly known as methedrone-Vehicles:...
– The ever increasing number of remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and attack purposes. - Non-veg – A meal served with meat, originally from India, now catching on worldwide.
- Kummerspeck – From the German seeing wider acceptance in the English, excess weight gained from emotional overeating (grief bacon).
- HaboobHaboobA haboob is a type of intense duststorm carried on an atmospheric gravity current. Haboobs are regularly observed in arid regions throughout the world. They have been observed in the Sahara desert , as well as across the Arabian Peninsula, throughout Kuwait, and in the most arid regions of Iraq...
– A name imported from the Arabic for massive sandstorms in the American Southwest. - 3Q – Near universal term for ‘thank you’ now earning additional status after being banned from official Chinese dictionaries. Another example of the ever increasing mixing of numbers and letters to form words.
- Trustafarians – Well-to-do youth (trust-funders) living a faux-Bohemian life style, now associated with the London Riots.
- (The Other) 9999Year 99 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Palma and Senecio...
– Referring to the majority of those living in Western Democracies who are left out of the dramatic rise in earnings associated with “the Top 1%”.
The Top Phrases of 2011
Rank/Word/Comments
- Arab SpringArab SpringThe Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
– The series of uprisings, social protests, and rebellions occurring among many nations of the Arab World beginning this spring. - Royal WeddingRoyal WeddingRoyal Wedding is a 1951 Hollywood musical comedy film known for Fred Astaire's dance performance on a ceiling and another with a coat rack. The story is set in London in 1947 at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and stars Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah...
– The wedding of the former Kate Middleton and heir-to-the-British-Throne, Prince William that captivated millions around the world. - Anger and Rage – Characterizations of the global electorate by the pundits, though closer analyses has revealed more frustration than anger and more disappointment than rage.
- Climate ChangeClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
– No. 1 phrase for the first decade of the 21st century; still resonates into its second decade. - The Great Recession – Though officially over, the media term most frequently used to describe the on-going global economic restructuring.
- Tahrir Square – The scene of the ‘25th of January’ demonstrations in Cairo against Hosni Mubarak.
- Linear No Threshold (LNT) – The methodology to calculate risk from exposure to radioactive elements from the Fukushima Daiiachi disaster.
- Bunga Bunga – Re-emerged in the language through ‘bunga-bunga’ parties hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
- ‘How’s that working out for you?’ – The New York Times credits Sarah Palin, but it predates her use of the phrase by several decades.
- “Make no mistake about it!” – President Obama has repeated the phrase thousands of times since his 2008 election.
The Top Names of 2011
Rank / Name / Comments
- Steve JobsSteve JobsSteven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
– The citations for Steve Jobs topped those for No. 2 (Osama bin-Laden and Seal Team 6) by more than 30%. - Osama bin-Laden & Seal Team 6 – Who changed the world more? Al-qaeda or Steve Jobs?
- FukushimaFukushimamay refer to:*Fukushima City – the capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan*Fukushima Prefecture – a Japanese prefecture*Two nuclear power plants located in Fukushima Prefecture:**Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant...
– The epicenter of the Japanese Triple Disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown). - Mohamed BouaziziMohamed BouaziziMohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides...
– the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself afire and became the symbol of Tunisian resistance – and the Arab spring. - Chinese Paramount Leader Hu JintaoHu JintaoHu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
– The Rise of the Tiger being a primary cause of the Global Economic Restructuring. - Kate MiddletonKate MiddletonCatherine, Duchess of Cambridge , is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. The Duke of Cambridge is second in line to the thrones of the sixteen Commonwealth realms and, when he becomes king , she will become queen consort...
– She captivated the world with her elegance and style and continues to do so as the Duchess of Cambridge. - Muammar GaddafiMuammar GaddafiMuammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
– Libyan strongman toppled in the recent insurrection. - President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
– Hope and Change retreat further into the history books; the game plan is now for survival. - PIIGS – The nations of Portugal, Ireland, Italy Greece and Spain taken together for their untenable deficits possibly affecting the economic health of the Eurozone.
- Yaroslavl Lokomotiv – The ill-fated elite Russian hockey team that was virtually wiped out in the crash of a three-engine Yak-42.
Top Words of the Decade
- Global WarmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
- 9/11
- ObamaBarack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
- Bailout
- Evacuee,
- DerivativeDerivativeIn calculus, a branch of mathematics, the derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. Loosely speaking, a derivative can be thought of as how much one quantity is changing in response to changes in some other quantity; for example, the derivative of the position of a...
- GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
- SurgeSurgeSurge was a citrus soft drink first introduced in Norway, under the name Urge , by the Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew.-History:...
- ChinglishChinglishChinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language. The term "Chinglish" is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations, reflecting the attitudes of those who apply...
- TsunamiTsunamiA tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
Climate Change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
was top phrase; Heroes
Heroes
Heroes may refer to:* Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good- Television :Series* Heroes , a 2006–2010 American science fiction series* Heroes , a 2010 South Korean variety Show...
was the top name of the first decade of the 21st century.
Previous Words of the Year include:
2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Spillcam, No. 2 Vuvuzela
Vuvuzela
The vuvuzela , also known as lepatata Mambu , colloquially known in South Africa as "Moerstripper", is a plastic horn, about long, which produces a loud monotone note, typically around B3 . Some models are made in two parts to facilitate storage, and this design also allows pitch variation...
, No. 3 The Narrative
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
, paramount leader of hina, No. 2 iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
, No. 3 Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
H1N1
'Influenza A virus is a subtype of influenza A virus and was the most common cause of human influenza in 2009. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused a few percent of...
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
Top Names: No. 1 Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, No. 2 Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, No. 3 Mobama
2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change
Change
Change may refer to:- The process of becoming different:* Social change* Biological metamorphosis* Change , the mathematical study of change* Percentage change, in statistics* Fold change, in statistics...
, No. 2 Bailout , No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami , No. 2 Global Warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
, No. 3 “Yes, We Can! ”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, No. 2 George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, No.3 Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...
2007:
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid
Hybrid
In biology and specifically, genetics, the term hybrid has several meanings, all referring to the offspring of sexual reproduction.#In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the mating of two distinctly homozygous individuals#a genetic hybrid carries two...
(representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Surge
Surge was a citrus soft drink first introduced in Norway, under the name Urge , by the Coca-Cola Company to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew.-History:...
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
Top Name: Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur
2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
No. 2: Tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove
2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Embedded
- In science :* In mathematics, embedding is one instance of some mathematical object contained within another instance** Graph embedding* In computing, an embedded system is a special-purpose system in which the computer is completely encapsulated by the device it controls* In computing, embedding...
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe , No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, No. 2 Dubya
2002:
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)
2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros
2000:
Top Word: Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)
Top Words, Phrases and Names of the Decade
The Top Words of the Decade from 2000 to 2009 were headed by Global WarmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
.
The Top Words of the Decade from 2000–2009
Word/Year/Comments
1. global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
(2000) Rated highly from Day One of the decade
2. 9/11 (2001) Another inauspicious start to the decade
3. Obama-
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
(2008 ) The US President’s name as a ‘root’ word or ‘word stem’
4. bailout (2008) The Bank Bailout was but Act One of the crisis
5. evacuee/refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
(2005) After Katrina, refugees became evacuees
6. derivative
Derivative
In calculus, a branch of mathematics, the derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. Loosely speaking, a derivative can be thought of as how much one quantity is changing in response to changes in some other quantity; for example, the derivative of the position of a...
(2007) Financial instrument or analytical tool that engendered the Meltdown
7. google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
(2007) Founders misspelled actual word ‘googol’
8. surge
Iraq War troop surge of 2007
In the context of the Iraq War, the surge refers to United States President George W. Bush's 2007 increase in the number of American troops in order to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province....
(2007) The strategy that effectively ended the Iraq War
9. Chinglish
Chinglish
Chinglish refers to spoken or written English language that is influenced by the Chinese language. The term "Chinglish" is commonly applied to ungrammatical or nonsensical English in Chinese contexts, and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations, reflecting the attitudes of those who apply...
(2005) The Chinese-English Hybrid language growing larger as Chinese influence expands
10. tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
(2004) Southeast Asian Tsunami took 250,000 lives
11. H1N1
H1N1
'Influenza A virus is a subtype of influenza A virus and was the most common cause of human influenza in 2009. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused a few percent of...
(2009) More commonly known as Swine Flu
12. subprime (2007) Subprime mortgages were another bubble to burst
13. dot.com
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
(2000) The Dot.com bubble engendered no lifelines, no bailouts
14. Y2K (2000) The Year 2000: all computers would turn to pumpkins at the strike of midnight
15. misunderestimate (2002) One of the first and most enduring of Bushisms
16. chad
Chad (paper)
Chad refers to paper fragments created when holes are made in a paper, card or similar synthetic materials, typically computer punched tape or punched cards. Sometimes chad has been used as a mass noun or as a countable noun, and the plural is commonly either "chad" or "chads"...
(2000) Those Florida voter punched card fragments that the presidency would turn aupon
17. twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
(2008) A quarter of a billion references on Google
18. WMD (2002) Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
19. blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
(2003) First called ‘web logs’ which contracted into blogs
20. texting (2004) Sending 140 character text messages over cell phones
21. slumdog (2008) Child inhabitants of Mumba’s slums
22. sustainable (2006) The key to ‘Green’ living where natural resources are never depleted
23. Brokeback (2004) New term for ‘gay’ from the Hollywood film ‘Brokeback Mountain’
24. quagmire (2004) Would Iraq War end up like Vietnam, another ‘quagmire’?
25. truthiness
Truthiness
Truthiness is a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or that it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts....
(2006) Stephen Colbert’s addition to the language appears to be a keeper
Also worth noting: ’Embedded’ (2003) to embed reporters with US Troops
The Top Phrases of the Decade from 2000–2009
Word/Year/Comments
1. climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
(2000) Green words in every form dominant the decade
2. Financial Tsunami (2008) One quarter of the world’s wealth vanishes seemingly overnight
3. ground zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...
(2001) Site of 9/11terrorist attack in New York City
4. War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
(2001) Bush administration’s response to 9/11
5. Weapons of Mass Destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
(2003) Bush’s WMDs never found in Iraq or the Syrian desert
6. swine flu
Swine flu
Swine influenza, also called pig influenza, swine flu, hog flu and pig flu, is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus. Swine influenza virus or S-OIV is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs...
(2008) H1N1, please, so as not to offend the pork industry or religious sensitivities!
7. “Let’s Roll!” (2001) Todd Beamer’s last words before Flight 93 crashed into the PA countryside
8. Red State/Blue State (2004) Republican or Democratic control of states
9. carbon footprint
Carbon footprint
A carbon footprint has historically been defined as "the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.". However, calculating a carbon footprint which conforms to this definition is often impracticable due to the large amount of data required, which is...
(2007) How much CO² does an activity produce?
10. shock-and-awe (2003) Initial strategy of Iraq War
11. Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
(2009) Madoff’s strategy reaped billions & heartache
12. Category 4 (2005) Force of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans’ seawalls and levies
13. King of Pop (2000) Elvis was the King, MJ
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
the King (of Pop)
14. “Stay the course
Stay the course
"Stay the course" is a phrase used in the context of a war or battle meaning to pursue a goal regardless of any obstacles or criticism. The modern usage of this term was popularized by United States presidents George W. Bush, George H. W...
” (2004) Dubya’s oft-stated guidance for Iraq War
15. “Yes, we can
Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008
Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007. On August 27, 2008, he was declared nominee of the Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election...
!” (2008) Obama’s winning campaign slogan
16. “Jai Ho
Jai Ho
"Jai Ho" is a Hindi song composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Gulzar, for the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. It accompanies a choreographed dance sequence at the end credits of the film. The song also features vocals by Mahalakshmi Iyer, Tanvi Shah, Vijay Prakash, and Sukhwinder Singh, who is...
!” (2008) Shout of joy from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
17. “Out of the Mainstream” (2003) Complaint about any opposition’s political platform
18. cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
(2007) Using the Internet as a large computational device
19. threat fatigue (2004) One too many terrorist threat alerts
20. same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
(2003) Marriage of gay couples
High tech terms
On March 17, 2010, the Global Language Monitor presented the Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords of the decade (2000–2009).1. HTTP — HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
(HyperText Markup Language) files.
2. Flash — As in Flash Memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
. “Flash’ is easier to say than “ I brought the report on my EEPROM chip with a thin oxide layer separating a floating gate and control gate utilizing Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling”.
3. God Particle – The Higgs boson
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. Its existence is postulated as a means of resolving inconsistencies in the Standard Model...
, thought to account for mass. The God Particle has eluded discovery since its existence was first postulated some thirty years ago.
4. Cloud Computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
– Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)
5. Plasma
Plasma display
A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
(as in plasma TV) — Refers to a kind of television screen technology that uses matrix of gas plasma cells, which are charged by differing electrical voltages to create an image.
6. IPOD
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
– Apple maintains that the idea of the iPod was from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
7. Megapixel – One million pixels or picture elements.
8. Nano – Widely used to describe anything small as in nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
. Like the word ‘mini’ which originally referred to the red hues in Italian miniature paintings, the word nano- is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’.
9. Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.
10. Virtualization – Around since the late ‘70s, virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O.
On November 19, 2008 Global Language Monitor announced the most confusing yet frequently cited high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
buzzwords of 2008 to be cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
, green washing, and buzzword
Buzzword
A buzzword is a term of art, salesmanship, politics, or technical jargon that is used in the media and wider society outside of its originally narrow technical context....
compliant followed by resonate, de-duping, and virtualization. Rounding out the Top Ten were Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
, versioning, word clouds, and petaflop. The most confusing Acronym for 2008 was SaaS
Saas
SAAS is an abbreviation for* Social Accountability Accreditation Services* Software as a service * Student Awards Agency for Scotland* Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences* South Australian Ambulance Service...
(software as a service).
On 14 October 2007 GLM released a list of the most confusing high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
terms and buzzword
Buzzword
A buzzword is a term of art, salesmanship, politics, or technical jargon that is used in the media and wider society outside of its originally narrow technical context....
s. The words included:
iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
,
flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
,
cookie
HTTP cookie
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user's browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site...
,
nano
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
and
kernel,
followed by
megahertz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
,
cell
Cell (microprocessor)
Cell is a microprocessor architecture jointly developed by Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM, an alliance known as "STI". The architectural design and first implementation were carried out at the STI Design Center in Austin, Texas over a four-year period beginning March 2001 on a...
(as in
cell phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
),
plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
,
de-duplication
and
Blu-Ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
.
Other terms being tracked included
terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
,
memory,
core
Magnetic core memory
Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random-access computer memory for 20 years . It uses tiny magnetic toroids , the cores, through which wires are threaded to write and read information. Each core represents one bit of information...
,
and head crash
Head crash
A head crash is a hard-disk failure that occurs when a read–write head of a hard disk drive comes in contact with its rotating platter, resulting in permanent and usually irreparable damage to the magnetic media on the platter surface....
.
The most confusing acronym was found to be SOA
Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
, for service-oriented architecture
Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
, an acronym which IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
published a book about.
The studies are released each year on the anniversary of the cookie, the invention that made the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
practical for widespread surfing
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, communication, and e-commerce
Electronic commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online...
.
Counting English words
GLM announced the 1,000,000th English word on June 10, 2009. This controversial exercise was widely covered in the global media. The count itself was widely criticized by a number of prominent members of the linguistic community, including Geoffrey NunbergGeoffrey Nunberg
Geoffrey Nunberg is an American linguist and a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Nunberg has taught at Stanford University and served as a principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center from the mid-1980's to 2000...
, and Jesse Sheidlower
Jesse Sheidlower
Jesse Sheidlower is an author and editor specializing in English linguistics and lexicography. From 1999 until 2005 he was Principal North American Editor at the Oxford English Dictionary; since 2005 he has been an editor-at-large, focusing on North American usage. He is a frequently cited expert...
and Benjamin Zimmer
Benjamin Zimmer
Benjamin Zimmer is an American linguist and lexicographer. He is the executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com. He was the "On Language" columnist for The New York Times Magazine from March 2010 to February 2011 and formerly a research associate at the University of...
. on the grounds that since there is no generally accepted definition of a word, there can never be a definitive count. However, in December 2010 a joint Harvard/Google study found the language to contain 1,022,000 words and was expanding at the rate of 8,500 words per year. The difference between the Google/Harvard estimate and that of the Global Language Monitor is about thirteen thousandth of one percent.
The finalists, which met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations, were:
1. Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
. 2. Jai Ho!
Jai Ho
"Jai Ho" is a Hindi song composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Gulzar, for the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire. It accompanies a choreographed dance sequence at the end credits of the film. The song also features vocals by Mahalakshmi Iyer, Tanvi Shah, Vijay Prakash, and Sukhwinder Singh, who is...
3. N00b
Newbie
Newbie or noob is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet activity, such as online gaming or Linux use...
. 4. Slumdog
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup...
. 5. Cloud Computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
. 6. Carbon Neutral. 7. Slow Food
Slow Food
Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of...
. 8. Octomom
Nadya Suleman
Nadya Denise Doud-Suleman , known as Octomom in the media, is an American woman who came to international attention when she gave birth to octuplets in January 2009. The Suleman octuplets are only the second full set of octuplets to be born alive in the United States...
. 9. Greenwash
Greenwash
Greenwashing , or "green sheen", is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company's policies or products are environmentally friendly.-Usage:...
ing. 10. Sexting
Sexting
Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones. The term was first popularized in early 21st century, and is a portmanteau of sex and texting, where the latter is meant in the wide sense of sending a text possibly with...
. 11. Shovel ready
Shovel ready
A project is considered shovel ready if it has advanced to the stage that laborers may immediately be employed to start work. The term is used in reference to projects which are candidates for economic stimulus spending: money put into a shovel ready project will have a more immediate impact on the...
. 12. Defriend. 13. Chengguan. 14. Recessionista. 15. Zombie Banks
Zombie bank
A zombie bank is a financial institution that has an economic net worth less than zero but continues to operate because its ability to repay its debts is shored up by implicit or explicit government credit support...
.
Critics noted that the target date had been changed a number of times from late in 2006 to early in 2009. It was also criticized on grounds that a count is impossible because "word" is not a scientifically valid concept. Google addressed this situation by counting the words in the 15 million scanned texts in their corpus. Global Language Monitor states the general criteria for inclusion on its site, maintaining that it is simply updating the established criteria for printed dictionaries beginning with the works of Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
and Noah Webster
Noah Webster
Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...
.
The New York Times described the PQI as "an algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet in relation to frequency, context and appearance in global media. It is a weighted index that takes into account year-to-year increases and acceleration in the last several months". In general terms, GLM describes its Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), used to run its analytics on global language trends and , as a weighted index, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity, using frequency data on words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and throughout the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
, as well as in proprietary databases (Factiva
Factiva
Factiva is a business information and research tool owned by Dow Jones & Company. Factiva aggregates content from both licensed and free sources, and provides organizations with search, alerting, dissemination, and other information management capabilities...
, Lexis-Nexis, etc.). It can also create "signals" that can be used in a variety of applications.
Obama an English language word
On 20 February 2008 GLM announced that the latest word to enter the English language was "obama", derived from Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, in its many variations. GLM described Obama- as a "root" for words including obamanomics, obamican, obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, Obamafy, obamamania and obamacam. GLM announced it to be an accepted word, once it met the group's published criteria: a minimum of 25,000 citations in the global media, as well as achieving the necessary 'breadth' and 'depth' of citations.
Other Analysis and Rankings
The Global Language Monitor publishes other lists relating to the English language including: the TrendTopper MediaBuzz College GuideTrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide
TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Guide is an American-college guide based on what it calls "Internet brand equity" based on Internet data, social media, blogs and the top 75,000 print and electronic media outlets. It ranks the what it calls the Top 300 United States colleges and universities...
rankings of the top 300 U.S. colleges and universities according to their internet brand equity
Brand equity
Brand equity is the marketing effects and outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. Fact of the well-known brand name is that, the company can sometimes charge premium prices from the consumer . And,...
,
Universities (2012):
Rank/University/Previous Ranking
- Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
(3) - Northwestern UniversityNorthwestern UniversityNorthwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
(31) - University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(8) - Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(5) - California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
(19) - Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(4) - Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(11) - University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
(2) - University of Texas, Austin (10)
- Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
Colleges (2012):
Rank/College/Previous Ranking
- Williams CollegeWilliams CollegeWilliams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
- University of RichmondUniversity of RichmondThe University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
- Union CollegeUnion CollegeUnion College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...
- Claremont McKenna CollegeClaremont McKenna CollegeClaremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
- Harvey Mudd CollegeHarvey Mudd CollegeHarvey Mudd College is a private residential liberal arts college of science, engineering, and mathematics, located in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds....
- Pomona CollegePomona CollegePomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
- Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan UniversityWesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
- The Juilliard School
- Carleton CollegeCarleton CollegeCarleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
- Bates CollegeBates CollegeBates College is a highly selective, private liberal arts college located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. and was most recently ranked 21st in the nation in the 2011 US News Best Liberal Arts Colleges rankings. The college was founded in 1855 by abolitionists...
The Top Global Fashion Capitals (2011):
Ranking / City / Previous Ranking
- LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(3) - New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(1) - ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(4) - Milano (6)
- Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
(5) - Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
(2) - BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
(10) - SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
(15) - TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
(14) - BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
(18)
and 15 Top All-Time Bushism
Bushism
Bushisms are unconventional words, phrases, pronunciations, malapropisms, and semantic or linguistic errors that have occurred in the public speaking of former President of the United States George W. Bush and, much less notably, of his father, George H. W. Bush. The term has become part of popular...
s, and many others.