#wotyposting

[kwekstra]

Ok I am once again liveblogging the Word of the Year vote

• For informal word of the year, multiple people have gone up to the mic announcing themself as “team rawdog”

• One respected professor threw his support behind “W”, saying (I’m paraphrasing) “double the u, double the pleasure”

• In lieu of an institution, one person announced themself as a “tumblr shitposter”. That person? Was me.

[kwekstra]

Word of the Year liveblog: Year 3

A year has passed, language change has occurred, and it is once again time for a vote. Tonight hundreds of linguists will have to decide if they are the brave soldier who will step up to the mic and explain to their colleagues what gooning means.

See my liveblogs for previous years here and here

• Someone spoke in favor of “reheat nachos” for Creative Word of the Year, providing the example sentence “Lady Gaga reheated Beyoncé’s nachos and they were burnt”

• Someone spoke in favor of “Amphifa”, which is a portmanteau of Amphibians and Antifa, in solidarity with “both pacific northwesterners and frogs”

• I don’t have anything interesting to say on this but what the fuck is a “Fridge Cigarette”?

• REHEATED NACHOS WINS MOST CREATIVE WORD OF THE YEAR

• Surprising nobody, 6-7 has been nominated for Informal Word of the Year

• Someone has given an impassioned speech of “x, I fear” for Informal Word of the Year. It didn’t sway opinion, I fear.

• The next person to speak, gave the disclaimer that they would be “reheating the nachos” of the previous speaker.

• Multiple people have spoken in favor of 6-7, highlighting its “linguistic uniqueness”, its “gestural component”, and the fact that it transcends language.

• A CHILD has come to the mic to argue AGAINST 6-7, to deafening applause. “I could say 1-2. Would that become popular too?”

• Someone else has spoken against 6-7, arguing that it didn’t fit the informal category due to its “limited semantic content and largely pragmatic usages”

• The twin of the first child has come to the mic, arguing in FAVOR of 6-7, saying “the adults have their words, let us have ours!” Again, deafening applause

• I regret to announce that 6-7 HAS WON INFORMAL WORD OF THE YEAR IN A LANDSLIDE

[kwekstra]

quick! before the final word of the year vote starts: should I nominate “I’m bald”? 1 note and I’ll do it

[kwekstra]

I’m not sure what y’all did but the word of the year people are reporting a STAGGERING increase in submissions from people self described as “queer and chronically online”

[kwekstra]

1) so cool that you attended the word of the year thing!!

2) is rawdogging being used the way it's been used for a couple of decades (brain so tired, I mean like, to describe something rough and almost casually reckless), and it got word of the year cuz it was used so much? Or is there a new understanding of the word?

Yea!!!

Yea pretty much. Basically engaging in an activity without some element that would make the activity safer/more bearable/better. The example given during the nominations was "Rawdogging an airplane ride by sitting there silently without bringing a book to read". I think that sorta broadening of the definition + the term becoming more mainstream is why it was nominated this year.

[kwekstra]

Hey! Are you still liveblogging the word of the year livestream? Where can one watch that?

Hello! I do intend to cover this year’s vote (pending logistics), but I don’t think there’s any official livestream. I was physically present for the votes I liveblogged.

If you know any of the linguists who are going to be in the room, you could ask them to facetime you! I did see some people doing that last year.

[kwekstra]

I must regretfully inform the public that "6-7" has been nominated for informal word of the year

[kwekstra]

I'm curious, how did you accidentally create the 'Most Fun While It Lasted' category?

I nominated “brat” for “least likely to succeed”, a play on the “most likely to succeed” category. I thought “least likely to succeed” was fitting because “brat” is very specific to a time (brat summer) and an attitude (kamala optimism, among others) that are no longer prevalent. People liked the idea but wanted a name that sounded less negative. WOTY mvp Nicole Holliday suggested “Most fun while it lasted”. Eventually so many people nominated words for the joke category that the organizers had to make it a real category.