Words of the Year: 2021

Last week I attended the annual Word of the Year competition sponsored by the American Dialect Society. It was my second year participating. I am not sure how I got invited, and I think it might generally be in-person rather than on Zoom, in which case I wouldn’t be able to go. I really enjoy it. The American Dialect Society has been choosing a Word of the Year since the 1990s. 

Some dictionaries also name a word of the year. The word of the year is generally the word that has had the most impact that year. A word that signifies the year. It is not necessarily a new word. The American Dialect Society has ten categories for Word of the Year– sort of like the Academy Awards. 

When you get the invitation to attend, you are also invited to submit some words you think should be considered. Then, I believe, a small committee of word people gets together to get each category down to four to six entries. At the Zoom event, the words in each category are presented. The audience members can then raise their hands to give an opinion on why or why not a word should be selected. Then a poll is put up on the screen with the four to six entries, and we vote. There were nearly 400 people present this time. If no one word (or phrase) gets a majority, there is a runoff between the top two.

P.S. I felt really old because many of the words I had never heard of!

Here are the categories and winners (and what I voted for):

Political Word of the Year:

The Big LieCritical Race Theory (CRT)insurrectionmandate

I voted for insurrection. Insurrection won. The Big Lie came in second. 

Digital Word of the Year

bones day/no bones day (from Noodles the dog on Tik Tok)#FreeBritneyhorny jailparasocialgirl boss

I voted for bones day/no bones day. #Free Britney won. Para social came in second.

Pandemic Word of the Year

boostedbreakthroughDelta/Omriconlong Covidvariantvax/vaxxflurona (added by one of the facilitators last minute)

I voted for variant. Boosted won. Variant came in second.

Financial/Economic Word of the Year

The Great ResignationNFT (non-fungible token)SPA (special-purpose acquisition companies)stimmy (short for stimulus)stonk (deliberate misspelling of stock)supply chain

I voted for supply chain. Supply chain won. The Great Resignation came in second. 

Informal Word of the Year

cheugy (used by Gen Z to poke fun at millennials)down bad (desperate for sex)flop era (unsuccessful period for a pop star)yassify (putting filters to a photo to make it into a cartoon)

I voted for yassify. Yassify won. Cheugy came in second.

Euphemism of the Year

Election integrity (voter suppression)glizzyLet’s Go Brandon (F*** Biden)TFG (The Former Guy, used by those who don’t want to say trump’s name, including Biden)unalive (suicide, or sometimes just death)

I voted for Let’s Go Brandon. Unalive won. Elation integrity came in second.

Most Creative Word of the Year

chin diaper (masks worn below the nose)copium (combination of cope and opium)core (??? Beats me) Fauci ouchie

I voted for chin diaper. Fauci ouchie won. Chin diaper came in second.

Most Likely to Succeed

endemic mid (Gen Z slang for average)NFTsigma male (not alpha, but almost)shrinkflationantiworkThe Great Resignation

I voted for endemic. Antiwork won. The Great Resignation came in second. 

Most Useful Word of the Year

bussin’ (extremely good, such as food)hard pants (work clothes, as opposed to working at home clothes with elastic waists – soft pants)tone indicator (emojs that help illustrate the tone of a text)vibe (means the same as it always did)

I voted for hard pants. Hard pants won. Vibe came in second.

All Around Word of the Year – The Big One!

The Big LieThe Great ResignationInsurrectionantiworklong CovidOmicronvariantvax/vaxx

I voted for insurrection. Insurrection won. Vax/Vaxx came in second.

I think when I suggested words on my invitation, I suggested insurrection, variant…and one or two more that I don’t remember. 

Webster’s Word of the Year: Vaccine

Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year: Vax

More information about the American Dialect Society