The “Coolest Of The Cool” New Words Of The Year!

According to Merriam-Webster, publishers of the famous dictionary, the “Word of the Year” was “austerity.” With the turbulent world economy, this is not surprising. It drew 250,000 searches, the methodology M-W uses to make the determination. Some of the runners-up, which also are logical in view of world economics and politics, include: “pragmatic,” “moratorium,” “bigot,” and “shellacking.”

That said, what are the “Ken Makovsky ‘Coolest of the Cool’ Words of the Year”? Well, I regretfully admit that only one of these words is a KM-original. All the rest have been invented by others, and selected as favorites by still others. I reviewed lots of them…and here are my choices (not in order of preference):

l. Apocalypse Fatigue – a loss of interest in environmental news on the part of those who are overwhelmed by all the doom and gloom messages about climate change.
2. Thumbo – as a typo is to print, a thumbo is to texting.
3. Data Exhaust – the digital trail you leave as you click your way through the internet that enables advertisers to develop ads that fit your behavioral profile.
4. To Trend – a verb meaning to generate a burst of online buzz (e.g., lots of chatter about the Gulf Oil Spill).
5. Belieber – fans of Justin Bieber, the Canadian pop singer.
6. I-dosing – a kind of “digital drug”; using an MP3 file to generate sounds that allegedly give listeners a high.
7. Coffice – a coffee shop habitually used as an office by customers accessing its space, electricity, wi-fi, etc. (What a great name for a KM habit!)
8. Slow Media – print media, as opposed to online media.
9. Sofalize –people who prefer to stay home and communicate with others electronically.
10. Robo-signing – the automatic generation of a document, particularly a mortgage arrears or foreclosure notice, without verifying the accuracy of its contents.
11. Flash Crash – the May 6th market drop of almost 1000 points.
12. A-FT – as in apolitical, this is “afollowthrough” – someone who does not follow through (a KM original, and pet peeve).

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