dragonfly editorial

Oxford announces word of the year is … most boring word ever!

Posted by: Samantha Enslen, president and senior editor, November 16th, 2006

Well, the good folks at Oxford University Press have unveiled The New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2006. And it ain’t anything cute or even elegant.

It’s carbon neutral. I am yawning just typing it. Head to Oxford if you want the definition.

Their reasoning for choosing such a dud? Oxford’s Erin McKean, editor of the OAD, writes:

We know that people love fun, flashy words like truthiness … but we are always looking for a word that is both reflective of the events and concerns of the past year and also forward-looking: a word that we think will only become more used and more useful as time goes on.

OK … I guess.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 11:27 pm and is filed under English usage, Resources for editors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

What do our clients think?

Press Releases

view archives

Latest Comments

  • Samantha: Great concept … I love the idea of creating a new life...
  • Tracy Salcedo-Chourre: I love the ellipses. It either makes you look...
  • Greg H: What a truly fabulous blog post! Who would imagine those simple,...