Words of 2015 round-up

Word of the Year season has closed with the selections of the American Dialect Society this past weekend, so it’s time to reflect on the different words of the 2015. The refugee crisis and gender politics have featured prominently in selections around the globe as well as the influence of technology.

In the English-speaking word:

Collins Dictionary named “binge watch” as their Word of 2015.

Oxford Dictionaries selected the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji.

Dennis Baron selected the gender-neutral singular “they” as his Word of the Year.

Quartz’s (unofficial) nomination for Word of the Year is also the singular “they”.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre’s Word of the Year is “sharing economy”.

Dictionary.com selected “identity”.

Merriam-Webster selected the suffix “-ism”.

Cambridge Dictionaries selected “austerity”.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) selected “content marketing”.

Global Language Monitor

In New Zealand, Public Address selected “quaxing”.

Ben Zimmer thought “they” as a gender-neutral singular pronoun was an early front-runner.

Lynne Murphy’s US-to-UK Word of the Year is “mac & cheese” and UK-to-US is “backbencher”.

Nancy Friedman selected “refugee”.

Gary Nunn reflected on the whole Word of the Year phenomenon.

Samantha Bennett also reflected on Word of the Year nominees.

David Barnhart offered a brief list of nominees.

Lake Superior State University released their annual list of words to be banned.

Michael Skapinker was interested in a few new verbs this year, such as “to database”.

Wordspy has selected “feardom”.

“Atticus” is the

The name of the year is announced by the . The overall name of the year is Caitlyn Jenner. #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

Gender-neutral they wins Most Useful by a landslide! #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

And the winner of Most Creative is ammosexual! No run-off required. #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

Manbun wins Most Unnecessary! #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

Fuckboy wins Most Outrageous! #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

Netflix and chill wins Most Euphemistic! #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

Most Likely to Succeed goes to ghost—to abruptly end a relationship by cutting off communication #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

Sitbit wins for Least Likely to Succeed! #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016

wins for Most Notable Hashtag! #WOTY15 #LSA2016

— Am. Dialect Society (@americandialect) January 8, 2016