American Dialect Society has chosen 'because' as the word of the year for 2013 from among an impressive list of words that included slash, selfie, Obamacare, bitcoin and twerk, because change!
At the latest meeting of the Society, 'because' polled 127 out of a total of 175, pipping 'slash' at the last post because new popularity!
The days of using 'because' with a comma immediately before and a comma immediately after, followed by a full clause, as in 'I am ranting, because, I am mad', or an 'of', as in 'you are raving because of (my) madness' are passe because casual online usage!
Ben Zimmer, Chairman of the Society's new words committee, has explained: “No longer does ‘because’ have to be followed by of or a full clause.... Now one often sees tersely worded rationales like
‘because science’ or ‘because reasons.’ You might not go to a party ‘because
tired.’ As one supporter put it, ‘because’ should be word of the year ‘because
useful!’ ”. Wow! No wonder! The Dialect Society has voted 'because' as also the most useful word of the year.
The leaders of some of the other word categories for 2013 are: 'catfish' (to misrepresent oneself online, especially as part of a romantic deception) in "Most Creative"; 'sharknado' (a tornado full of sharks as in the movie of that name) in "Most Unnecessary"; 'underbutt' (the underside of buttocks left visible by some shorts) in "Most Outrageous"; and 'least untruthful' (meaning the smallest necessary lie, used by the U.S. intelligence director James Clapper) in "Most Euphemistic".
The Society has been doing this ever since 1990 because?
No comments:
Post a Comment