Thanks for your comment, Nancy, and for your correction. California is such a nebulous place to us East Coasters (or at least, to this one)!
As a non-native speaker, I found your list very useful, thanks!
Incidentally, has “content curation” appeared on any WOTY list? It’s been around for a few years, but it looked as if in 2011 its frequency increased enormously, not only in social media contexts.
Licia — I haven’t seen this compound term on anyone’s list and I think it’s unlikely to make the grade because it isn’t frequent enough yet. However, the broadened used of “curate” and “curation” has come to the notice of word-watchers and lexicographers. See, for example, Nancy Friedman’s candidates for Word of the Year: http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2011/12/words-of-the-year-2011-fritinancy-edition.html
Excellent roundup, Orin! One correction: the pepper-spraying occurred not in Oakland but 60 miles east, on the UC Davis campus: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/20/local/la-me-occupy-uc-davis-20111120
Thanks for your comment, Nancy, and for your correction. California is such a nebulous place to us East Coasters (or at least, to this one)!
As a non-native speaker, I found your list very useful, thanks!
Incidentally, has “content curation” appeared on any WOTY list? It’s been around for a few years, but it looked as if in 2011 its frequency increased enormously, not only in social media contexts.
Licia — I haven’t seen this compound term on anyone’s list and I think it’s unlikely to make the grade because it isn’t frequent enough yet. However, the broadened used of “curate” and “curation” has come to the notice of word-watchers and lexicographers. See, for example, Nancy Friedman’s candidates for Word of the Year:
http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2011/12/words-of-the-year-2011-fritinancy-edition.html
Update: the American Dialect Society has announced “occupy” as their word of the year. See http://www.americandialect.org/2011-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf for winners in various categories.
Dear Orin, thank you very much for very informative post! We regularly hold a Reading Club through my site and discussed it.
[…] ever excellent MacMillan Dictionary blog pulled together other contenders, the Evening Standard ran its own list of new or pimped up words […]