Spillcam is Global Language Monitor Top Word of Year

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Spillcam is Global Language Monitor Top Word of Year

“Spillcam” and “vuvuzela” were the top words of 2010, reflecting the global impact of the months-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the noisy South African horns at the World Cup soccer tournament, according to a survey released on Sunday.

“Refudiate” — a word coined by politician Sarah Palin in a cross between refute and repudiate — also made the top 10, according to the annual Global Language Monitor survey.

The Texas-based survey uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in the English-speaking world of more than 1.58 billion people.

It declared that President Hu Jintao of China and Apple’s new iPad were the two top names of the year on a list that also featured “Chilean Coal Miners,” reflecting the worldwide fascination with televised rescue in October of 33 men trapped deep in a mine.

“Anger and rage” among political voters from the United States to Greece was deemed the most popular phrase of 2010. “Obamania,” one of the biggest phrases of the past two years, ranked in 10th place.

“Our top words this year come from an environmental disaster, the World Cup, political malapropisms, news sense to ancient words, a booming economic colossus and a heroic rescue that captivated the world for days on end,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor.

In politics, Tea Party — the U.S. grass-roots political movement — made both the 2010 top phrases and top names list, while “Man up!” — a signature retort from U.S. political women to their male opponents — made its first entry.

Pop singer Lady Gaga, 3D (as in movies), the “great recession,” MTV reality show “Jersey Shore” and its Italian American young Guidos and Guidettes also made the 2010 list.

Last year’s top words were Twitter, Obama and the flu virus H1N1.

List of The Top Words of 2010

1. Spillcam — The BP Spillcam instantly beamed the immensity of the Gulf Spill around the world to the dismay of environmentalists, BP’s PR staff and the President.

2. Vuvuzela — Brightly colored plastic horns that first came to prominence at the South African World Cup.

3. The Narrative – Though used at least since The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, ‘The Narrative’ has recently been gaining traction in the political arena, virtually replacing the need for a party’s platform. (Cf. to ‘truthily’.)

4. Refudiate — Conflation of “refute” and “repudiate” (un)officially coined by Sarah Palin.

5. Guido and Guidette — Hey! All things Jersey are hot, capish? (Actually, capisci in standard Italian.)

6. Deficit – A growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of most of the developed world.

7. Snowmaggedden (and ‘Snowpocalypse’) — Portmanteau words linking ‘snow’ with ‘apocalypse’ and ‘armageddon’, used to describe the record snowfalls in the US East Coast and Northern Europe last winter.

8. 3-D – Three-dimensional (as in movies) is buffo box office this year, but 3-D is being used in new ways generally describing ‘robustness’ in products (such as toothpaste).

9. Shellacking – President Obama’s description of the ‘old-fashioned thumpin’ in George W. Bush’s words, that Democrats received in the 2010 US Mid-term elections.

10. Simplexity – The paradox of simplifying complex ideas in order to make them easier to understand, the process of which only adds to their complexity.