The American Dialect Society voted Google, the verb meaning ‘to search the internet’, as the ‘word of the decade’ as it is used by almost everyone these days. The society also chose ‘tweet’, sending a short message via Twitter, as the top word for 2009 at its 20th annual session held in Baltimore this month.
“Both words are, in the end, products of the information age, where every person has the ability to satisfy curiosity and to broadcast to a select following, both via the Internet,” said Grant Barrett, chairman of the society’s new words committee.
Other finalists for this year’s Word of the Decade included ‘blog’, ‘9/11’, ‘Facebook’, ‘text’, ‘Wi-Fi’ and ‘War on Terror’.
“I really thought ‘blog’ would take the honour, but more people Google than blog don’t they? Plus, many people think ‘blog’ just sounds ugly,” Barrett said.
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