The word of the year is . . .

Subprime?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22514839/?GT1=10755

The American Dialect Society voted "subprime" the Word of the Year for 2007. The finalists were: Facebook, green, Googleganger and waterboarding.

Never fear, my Earth-loving friends - "green" won the subcategory of "Most Useful Word of 2007." I've been thinking that "green" is just another instance of how the 24-hour news media monster has taken a decent, upstanding word and corrupted it by assigning another (ahem, incorrect) definition to it and then using the word incessantly until my head explodes. Clearly I'm not as hip as the American Dialect Society.

And the article was compelled to define "Googleganger" for us, since no one other than the 80 members of the American Dialect Society have probably ever heard of it. Its a noun that refers to the guy (other than you) who appears in the search results when you Google your own name.

I question the judgment of people who voted "plutoed" as the Word of the Year for 2006. Apparently, it means "to be demoted or devalued."