Word revelation
Published Jan 17, 2008Sometimes the best way to take the collective pulse of the people is to look at the words that are most often bantered about in board rooms, coffeehouses, over lunch or on Internet blogs. Some organizations took a serious look and came up with a couple of words that its members believe are a barometer of the times—for better or for worse.
About 80 members of the American Dialect Society spent two days recently at its annual meeting in Chicago, debating over the No. 1 word from 2007 that most reflected a common national interest and concern. Sadly, the runaway winner was “subprime”—an adjective that sends up a red flag in the financial world. It has “high risk” painted all over it and an ethical banker or money consultant would likely frown at the thought of advising his or her client to consider a mortgage or loan with “subprime” attached to it. Yet, because too many chose to gamble and lost, mortgage defaults and foreclosures have spilled onto the front lawns of America’s neighborhoods in alarming numbers.
Meanwhile, the Global Language Monitor, a California-based company that tracks trends in language, investigated and came up with its own 2007 verdict: “hybrid” was the word named as most popular in usage. Certainly the public’s concern over all things green is a healthier perspective than the fading green of money that evaporated before the very eyes of those who were swept into a mortgage meltdown.
Just a few years ago, in 2005, GLM proclaimed that the top name was “(acts of) God,” no doubt in reaction to the Katrina catastrophe that still plagues many in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Perhaps if we put God’s name on our lips and at the top of our word list again this year and lobby for his help, decision-makers in the state and federal legislatures will be moved to set into place better checks and balances to control the unscrupulous money lenders who have manipulated the naïve and uninformed and ultimately have forced folks out of their homes and into financial chaos.
It would be a better beginning for 2008 if we could focus on the many facets of greening in America and put behind the grief caused by “subprime.”