Top Words of the 21st Century (By Year)

The Top Words, Phrases, and Names of the 21st century follow.

2018:
Top Words: No. 1 Truth, No. 2 Narrative, No. 3, Opioids
Top Phrases: No 1. Weinstein Effect (and #MeToo), 2. Nuclear Option (North Korean version.), 3. Deep State
Top Names: No. 1 Donald Trump, No. 2 Vladimir Putin, No. 3 Neil Gorsuch
2017:
Top Words: No. 1 Truth, No. 2 Narrative, No. 3, Opioids
Top Phrases: No 1. Weinstein Effect (and #MeToo), 2. Nuclear Option (North Korean version.), 3. Deep State
Top Names: No. 1 Donald Trump, No. 2 Vladimir Putin, No. 3 Neil Gorsuch
2016:
Top Words: No. 1 A meme — Omran Daqneesh in Aleppo) No. 2 Refugee
Top Phrases: No. 1 Make America Great Again No. 2 When they go low, we go high No. 3 The Electoral College

 

Top Names: No. 1 Donald Trump, No. 2 Vladimir Putin, No. 3 Neil Gorsuch

 

2015:
Top Words: No. 1 Microaggression
Top Phrases: No. 1 Migrant Crisis
Top Names: No. 1 Donald J. Trump
2014:
Top Words: No. 1 The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love), No. 2 Hashtag, No. 3 Vape
Top Phrases: No. 1 Hands Up, Don’t Shoot; No. 2 Cosmic Inflation, No. 3 Global Warming

 

Top Names: No. 1 Ebola, No. 2 Pope Francis, No. 3 World War I

 

2013:
Top Words: No. 1 ’404’, No.2 Fail, No.3 Hashtag
Top Phrases: No. 1 Toxic Politics, No. 2 Federal Shutdown, No.3 Global Warming/Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1. Pope Francis, No. 2 ObamaCare, No.3 NSA
2012:
Top Words: No. 1 Apocalypse/Armageddon, No.2 Deficit, No. 3 Olympiad
Top Phrases: No. 1 Gangnam Style, No. 2 Climate Change/Global Warming, No. 3 Fiscal Cliff

 

Top Names: No. 1 Newtown and Malala Yousafzai, No. 3 Xi Jinping

 

2011:
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No. 2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Arab Spring, No. 2 Royal Wedding, No.3 Anger and Rage
Top Names: No. 1 Steve Jobs, No. 2 Osama bin-laden and Seal Team Six, No. 3 Fukushima
2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Spillcam, No. 2 Vuvuzela, No. 3 The Narrative
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama
2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama
2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 “Yes, We Can!”

Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps
2007:
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore
2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur
2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God
2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove
2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya
2002:
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)
2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros
2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)

About the Global Language Monitor

In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known.

Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.

These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print, and electronic media, as well as the global fashion industry, among others.

For More Information, go to LanguageMonitor.com or call 1.737.215.7750 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com.

GLOBAL LANGUAGE MONITOR (GLM) Names the Numerals the Top Words of the Year 2021 for Global English (#WOTY 2021)

GLM has been defining the Top Words of the 21st Century for Global English Since the Year 2000.

GLM is the only WOTY for Worldwide English

Next Big Numbers for 2022:

US:  1,000,000 Covid Deaths

World:  5,500,000 Covid Deaths

 Media Contact:  Paul JJ Payack    pjjp@post.harvard.edu, +1 (737) 215-7750

Austin, TEXAS, December 30 - January 4. The Global Language Monitor has named “the Numerals” the Top Words of the Year for 2021 for Global English.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has dominated the news in 2021 as it had in 2020.  However, It’s the numbers that accompany every story, in any language, at any time, in any medium that lift the numerals to the lofty position of Word of the Year (#WOTY).

There are, literally, hundreds of billions of permutations of the basic ten numerals   And no mention of Covid-19 is complete without a full run-down of the relevant stats.  For example, this week the media reported that “record number of U.S. COVID-19 infections, with 441,278 new cases, surpassing the previous high of about 290,000 cases reported earlier in Dec., nearly surpassing the previous daily record of 294,015 set before vaccines were widely available last January”.

The seven-day moving average is now more than 240,000 cases a day.

The Heart emoji was the Top Word of 2014 the first time a symbol took the honor, though the hashtag # also made the 2014 list.

The Top Words of the Year 2021 for Global English follow.

  1. The Numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0) – Every time Covid (or one of its variants) is mentioned, it is surrounded by three to five numbers. Covid-19 currently has about 4 billion citations on Google, which are accompanied by tens of billions of supporting numbers.
  2. Covid-19 – Word of the Year in 2020, could be word of the year in 2022. perhaps for the decade? Perhaps the 21st century?
  3. Wokeness – The state of being awakened to the social distresses found amongst us. Though this appears to occur for every generation it is used by politicians as a never-before-witnessed phenomenon.  Favored by Progressives.
  4. Variant – The longer the coronavirus persists, the more variations will emerge. Remember the great plague in London in 1666?  It was merely a replay of the bubonic plague of the mid-1300s. And the Hong Kong Flu?  A replay of the Spanish Flu of the World War 1 era.
  5. The Pronouns – People have been attempting to re-define their language for their own political purposes, at least since the French Revolution. The Marxists expanded the practice, right comrade?  The practice increased during the Sexual Revolution (Ms., etc.) and continues to grow during the recent ‘racial reckoning.  And today, the Woke among us are attempting to use personal “woke pronouns” to help define their sexual orientation (and yours).

Here is a list of gender-neutral pronouns:

He/She — Zie, Sie, Ey, Ve, Tey, E

Him/Her — Zim, Sie, Em, Ver, Ter, Em

His/Her — Zir, Hir, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir

His/Hers — Zis, Hirs, Eirs, Vers, Ters, Eirs

Himself/Herself — Zieself, Hirself, Eirself, Verself, Terself, Emself

  1. “Flatten the Curve.” – Don’t hear too many discussing ‘Flattening the Curve” nowadays.
  2. Supply Chain – You knew the global economy was linked in ways never before imagined. Now you KNOW it.
  3. Cancel Culture – A movement to negate whatever political speech you find inconvenient. Particularly strong on college campuses.
  4. Latinx – Gender-neutral version for people of Hispanic heritage, formerly Latino ad Latina.   I am planning to refer to myself henceforward as HUMANX.
  5. D Variant – Another Covid-19 variant
  6. Omicrom – Yet another Covid variant. This can go on for decades (see above).
  7. Coronavirus – Human coronavirus was first identified in the mid-1960s. Unfortunately, Covid-19 will be far from the last encounter.
  8. Joe Biden – 46th and current President of the United States. Biden has about one half the number of citations as his predecessor.
  9. Donald Trump – 45th president of the United States. Trump has twice as many current citations as his successor, Joe Biden.
  10. Tokyo Olympics – The 2021, nee 2020 Olympics were a modest disappointment, nevertheless a major achievement to have taken place in the midst of a raging worldwide pandemic
  11. Lockdown – At the end of the various national lockdowns; many felt like they had been locked up.
  12. WHO – The World Health Organization, whose charter requires it to help attain “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”.
  13. Global Warming – ‘Climate Change’ and/or ‘Global Warming’ have ranked near the top of this list for the entire century, thus far.
  14. January 6 Event at the U.S. Capitol Building, according to Global Citations 1) Attack, 2) Uprising, 3} Insurrection.
  15. Vaccine – Operation Warp Speed has begot a number of vaccines with others, no doubt, to follow.
  16. Afghanistan – The fall and unseemly retreat from Afghanistan cast a pall over an already somber year.

Global Language Monitor began recording the Top Words of the Year in 2000 to document the history of the 21st Century through the English language, the world’s first truly global language. The words are culled throughout the English-speaking world, which as of January 2021 ranks more than 3.18 billion speakers. Global Language Monitor employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global internet and social media analysis.

NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the internet, blogosphere, and the top 300,000 print and electronic global media as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

In addition, the Global Language Monitor has also tracked the Top Words, Phrases and Names of the 21st Century.

More information about these and the company can be found at https://languagemonitor.com/about/about-2/About Global Language Monitor

Based in Austin, Texas, the Global Language Monitor collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. The company is known for its Word of the Year, political analysis, college and university rankings, high-tech buzzwords, and media analytics. For more information, visit Languagemonitor.com.

Media Contact::  Paul JJ Payack

President & Chief Word Analyst
The Global Language Monitor

Austin, Texas 78717
pjjp@post.harvard.edu Private Email

 

A Brief Retrospective on the Nature of Truth and Why It Confuses Us So

FLASHBACK — A Brief Retrospective on the Nature of Truth and Why It Confuses Us So

Diogenes Searching For TRUTH in Ancient Greece

 Recently, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) announced that Truth is the Word of the Year for 2017.

Austin, Texas, December 2017.  If you kept abreast of the daily press reports, you would think an outbreak of mass hysteria or at least amnesia had swept over the nations of the West. The world’s leading print and electronic media acted as if the concept of truth had been circumvented, or even, contravened, and sounded alarm after alarm that what we all knew as facts were no longer discernible. The source of this disruption in the news cycle, of course, was what came to be known as fake news and post-truth.

For historical comparisons of a number of the terms used in this analysis, GLM used the Google Ngram Viewer.   You can use the Ngram Viewer to chart frequencies of comma-delimited search strings.  The Google Ngram Viewer uses yearly counts from sources printed between 1500 and 2008, though in some cases later dates of publications are included.

In the first example, frequencies of citations between and among a number of words used to describe the Top Words of the Year for 2016 are plotted between 1940 and the present.

Figure 1. Relative Frequency of citations among words used to describe the Top Words of the Year for 2016

Figure 2. Close-up on Relative Frequency Among Some Top Words of the Year for 2016

Figure 3.  Comparisons of the Words Truth Vs. Lie Since 1740

This is why early in the century, the Global Language Monitor put into place a methodology that clearly states that each considered word or phrase must adhere to the published criteria (see below). The methodology calls for words and phrases from the entire global English linguasphere to be considered, as well as each fulfilling geographic and demographic requirements. This automatically excludes the lists created by those organizations that rely on polls and other such non-scientific tools

A Methodology Optimized for the Wired World -- GLM’s Word of the Year rankings are based upon actual word usage 
throughout the English-speaking world, which now approaches some 2.38 billion people, who use the language 
as a first, second, business language. To qualify for these lists, the words, names, and phrases must meet 
three criteria: 1) found globally, 2) have a minimum of 25,000 citations, and 3) have the requisite ‘depth’ 
and ‘breadth’ of usage. Depth is here defined as appearing in various forms of media; breadth that they must 
appear world-over, not limited to a particular profession or social group or geography. The goal is to find 
the word usage that will endure the test of time.

Global Language Monitor began to use newly available technologies to document the Words of the Year for Global English at the turn of the 21st century, with the idea to encapsulate and capture the essence of the preceding twelve months in a sort of linguistic amber.

Consider for a moment that fact that in 2009 GLM named ‘twitter’ as the Global English Word of the Year, not only as a social media phenomenon but as a potential Weapon of Mass Disruption (or even destruction). Witness: 1) the Arab Spring and 2) the actions of one Donald J. Trump.

Political Correctness

In a time so debilitated by the specter of political correctness (both from the left and the right), it seems rather demeaning to advance the concept of ‘fake news’, once you study its etymology, tracing back the origins of the word ‘fake’.

Cambridge Dictionaries’ definition of fakir: A Muslim (or, loosely, a Hindu) religious ascetic who lives solely on alms. Origin: Early 17th century: via French from Arabic faqīr. Fakir, Arabic Faqīr (“poor”), originally, a mendicant dervish. In mystical usage, the word fakir refers to man’s spiritual need for God, who alone is self-sufficient. Although of Muslim origin, the term has come to be applied in India to Hindus as well.

Fakirs are generally regarded as holy men who are possessed of miraculous powers, such as the ability to walk on fire or to subsist by looking only at the face of God.

In a Languagelog posting by Mark Liberman, How Fakirs Became Fakers, Edmund Wilson comments (from the grave) that Fakirs began to become entwined with fakers with a common usage that arose out of the American spiritualism craze of the 19th century.  This is where one can witness the shift in meaning for the word fakir, from an Islamic religious ascetic to the Hindu “Yogi,” to a sort of street corner or carnival barker or “producer of illusions”.

In other words ‘fake news” joins a long list of ethnic slurs that have imbued American English since before the founding of the republic. They are too many to repeat. However the most common of these might be ‘ethnic-group’ giver’ or ‘ethnic-group rich’. Specifically, using the term fake news could be said to humiliate and/or cast aspersions upon Muslim and/or Hindu holy men. Recent searches of the New York Times found 869 instances of ‘fake news,’ while searches of The Washington Post found 1,352. None mentioned the historical dubiousness of the practice.

You can see this linguistic shift peaking around 1940 and continuing to this day.

Figure 4. Shift in Meaning Between Fakir and Faker During the 1940s

In retrospective, even the whole idea of fake news and post-truth is a bit of an over-reaction. The organizations that were disrupted the most by the appearance of unchecked, non-verifiable and inadequately sourced stories, were those upon which the world came to rely and depend upon to safeguard the information delivered to their audiences as verifiably true. To continue in these roles as stewards of truth, it was incumbent upon them to put into place new methods of testing information.

The unvarnished truth is that the dominant news gathering and distribution organizations fell behind the curve as sources of information multiplied by orders of magnitude. Neither did they comprehend the astonishingly rapid advances in computing power. Finally, the evolution of communication and social media tools advanced far more quickly than the old line media’s ability to adapt to and absorb them.

Decades of reporting on the decline of the US manufacturing base never seemed to register to old media as applicable lessons for themselves. In the mid-’80s, an HBS case study inquired as to which fared better — companies with strategic plans in place or those that had none. The answer: a dead heat. Apparently, companies without strategic plans were able to adjust more quickly to changing market conditions while companies with strategic plans all too often, steadfastly rode these plans straight into oblivion.  (For more information on this phenomenon, check out the first two editions of In Search of Excellence.  Prepare to be shocked.)

What is Truth?

The debate over what is truth has been ongoing since the search for an ‘honest man’ by Diogenes the Cynic, the dialogues of Socrates as recorded by Plato, the rhetorical question Pontius Pilate asked of the Christ, the Confessions of Augustine, the Summa of Aquinas, and the monastic scriptoria of Medieval Europe.

In the scriptoria of the Middle Ages, an elaborate system was constructed to ensure that no discrepancies were introduced into Scripture or highly-prized scholarly works — before the coming of movable type and the printing press. Can you imagine the decibel level of a discussion that played out over the misrepresentation of a single iota when dealing with the work of a Church Father, the Apostle Peter (or Paul), or the words of the Lord himself? This, of course, was complicated by the fact that there were few grammatical rules, little or no punctuation, no spaces between and among words, nor between sentences or paragraphs, and the like.

Even in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Harvard and Yale engaged in the same sort of tussle about the owner of Truth as the Right and Left are engaged in today.  Harvard chose the Latin word Veritas (Truth) on its official seal, while Yale considered the matter closed by adding Lux et Veritas.  (Light and Truth) to its own shield.  Three hundred years later, in an academic world perhaps overly concerned with political correctness, Harvard won top honors for the Top Politically (in)Correct Word of 2016.

Watching the nightly news and reading the traditional (for the last two centuries, that is) media, one has the distinct sense that what they perceive as unprecedented almost chaotic circumstances is actually that of the normalcy of the new reality, that of communications at the speed of light that the internet has foisted upon us.

We keep hearing about this most unusual of election cycles, but this is only true when looking through the prism (and historical construct) of the traditional news gathering operations. What is called the 24-hour News Cycle is actually just the tip of the tsunami washing over the planet at an ever-quicker pace. Indeed, the nature of the beast hasn’t changed at all. It is our outdated techniques, that haven’t kept up with the new reality: News now emanates at the speed of thought, from tens of thousands or, even, millions of sources.

Can you imagine the uproar in the monastic world when documents would be produced with little or no vetting against the time-honored standards?

In 2008 GLM published an article, “Is Merriam-Webster its own Best Frenemy,” where we noted that its newest additions to its Collegiate Dictionary, were older than most entering college students at the time (28 years vs 18!)  Indeed, for the most part, technology could solve most of the Post-truth and Fake News phenomena.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Global Language Monitor (GLM) has named the Top Words of Global English. A decade earlier, the American Dialect Society began to name the Word of The Year for mostly American (and a bit of British) English with little or no use of the then emerging computer power. By the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, the BBC chose the Global Language Monitor to determine the Top English Words of the Decade worldwide while they chose an UK-based Linguist to highlight those of the UK.

One of the most surprising trends in the evolution of the Words of the Year over the last two decades is that they have become decidedly more parochial, and more trivial, as the century has progressed. Now there are about a dozen players, all competing for the same space, so the race has been one of dumbing down the various nominees and ultimate winner in an apparently desperate attempt to seek the lowest common denominator, or even worse, to optimize entertainment value.

Perhaps most surprising of all is the apparent lack of preparation by the venerable incumbent organizations responsible for gathering, sifting through, and certifying information that then qualifies as verifiably newsworthy.

Apocalyptic language has been widely cited as word of the year worthy for the last several years — and rightly so. In fact, Apocalypse and Armageddon took Global Language Monitors’ honors as Top Global English Words of 2012. And though GLM’s proprietary algorithms have displayed a predictive element, it’s entirely possible that Apocalyptic language did indeed peak some five years too soon.

 

About the Global Language Monitor

In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known.

Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.

These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print, and electronic media, as well as the global fashion industry, among others.

For more information, call 1.512.801-6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.


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Global Language Monitor Announces That ‘Covid’ is the Top Word of 2020

Global Language Monitor Announces That ‘Covid’ is the Top Word of 2020 (Top 50 #WOTY Ranked)

Global Language Monitor Announces That 'Covid' is the Top Word of 2020

 

 

 

Global Language Monitor (GLM), the data research company that documents, analyzes, and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, has announced that Covid is the Top Word of 2020 in its mid-year update.

It’s no surprise that ‘covid’ has risen to the top of the rankings,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. “However, ‘covid’ has received the highest number of citations ever recorded in our global survey. In fact, ‘covid’ has outranked all previous Words of the Year in the 21st century by a factor of 100, or more.”

Covid is the commonly used shorthand for the shorthand for Covid-19. Covid-19 is the official name of the virus caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus, so named in WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

Covid-19 is ranked No. 2 on GLM’s mid-year update. The Top Ten Words of the Year (#WOTY) for 2020 include Covid, Covid-19, Coronavirus, Corona, Face mask, Progress, Truth, Social Distancing, Trade War, and Sustainability.

Top Words of the Year of 2020 (#WOTY2020) mid-year update follow (Rank, Word, Definition/Comment).

Please Note:  Typically, the Global Language Monitor publishes the Top Twenty Words in its rankings.  In this #WOTY2020 mid-year update, for the historical record, we are extending the published rankings to the Top Fifty. 

Global Language Monitor
Top Words of 2020 for Global English (Mid-year Update
Rank Word   Definition
1 Covid The shorthand for Covid-19 has the largest number of citations ever recorded in the 21st century.
2 Covid-19 The name of the virus caused by the SARS CoV-2 by   WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
3 Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 full name of virus that causes Covied-19.
4 Corona From the Latin for ‘crown’.  Compare the Sun’s corona during a total eclipse.
5 Face mask A face covering that helps halt the spread of Covid-19 to varying degrees depending on the material and number of layers.
6 Progress The belief that society moves ever towards betterment
7 Truth The idea that there is an objective, discernible reality for humans to discover and cherish.
8 Social Distancing The distance individuals should keep from each other to lessen risk of virus transmission, usually about 2 meters or six feet.
9 Trade War Colossal struggle between US and China with worldwide repercussions.
10 Sustainability Creating an environment that supplies certain needs without comprmising future production. 
11 Flatten the Curve The ability to manage the number of case so as to not overwhelm the hospital system.
12 Lockdown Restricting movement outside home or district.
13 Identity Politics Politics based on certain elements of one’s makeup, such as skin color or ethic background, or gender.
14 Progressives The word ‘liberal’ outlived its usefulness as the description of one’s political leanings.
15 Zoom Group meetings held over videoconferencing channels.
16 Quarantine Restricting physical movements to one’s home or institution, often separated from all others.
17 Migrants People moving from one nation to another.
18 Donald Trump Donald J. Trump, the 46th president of the US.
19 Symptoms Physical conditions that may signify the presence of a virus or illness.
20 Outbreak The seemingly sudden appearance of a disease in a community or geographic location.
21 CDC The Centers fo Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.
22 Conservatives Political philosophy that favors saving the best from the past while moving toward the future.
23 Unemployment Highest unemployment numbers the US has seen since the Great Recession — and possibly the Depression.
24 Climate Change Climate change has ranked in the Top Ten for the last dozen years or so. 
25 Hand Sanitizer Washing one’s hands with an anti-bacterial soap for thirty seconds is a strong barrier against Covid-19.
26 White Privilege Supposed advantages carried by Whites by virture of their ethnic heritage.
27 The Pandemic Current global pandemic precipitated by SARS-CoV-2.
28 The Virus Shorthand for Covid-19.
29 Work at Home The result of social distancing guidelines where employees must stay separated from each other.
30 Stimulus Massive $3 trillion+ funding effort by the US Federal Government to help keep families (and the economy) afloat.
31 George Floyd George Floyd, a black American, was killed by a police officer kneeling on his neck for some eight minutes in Minneapolis.  His death sparked global protests.
32 Black Lives Matter A movement protesting police brutality against African-Americans.  
33 Woke The state of suddenly becoming aware of social injustices in the society.
34 Joe Biden Presumptive presidential nominee of the Democrat Party against President Trump.
35 Wuhan Largest city in Central China, capital of Hubei Province, population 11,000,000; original epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak.
36 WHO WHO – World Health Organization was established in 1948 by the United Nations as the agency overseeing international public health.
37 Disinfectant A chemical agent that kills bacteria.
38 New Normal The new reality of the pandemic-ravaged world.
38 MAGA Campaign slogan of President Trump in 2016.
39 Fake News Packaged news, planted sources, one-sided exposes, party lines, and official narratives are a new phenomenon only to those with no sense of history.
40 Shelter-in-place Being confined to one’s home or institution to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
41 Nancy Pelosi The Speaker of the House of Representatives; the highest ranked Democratic office holder.
42 Self Isolate Quarantined for a minimum of 14 days after being exposed to Covid-19 to help stop the spread of the virus.
43 Dr. Anthony Fauci Dr. Anthony Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
44 “I Can’t Breathe” The last words uttered by George Floyd as he lay dying at the hands of Minneapolis police.
45 Essential Workers    Those workers who perform ‘essential’ tasks during the coronavirus pandemic, most notably in healthcare, food production and distribution, and the service sector.
46 Wet Market Outdoor markets that offer recently slaughtered meat, fish and poultry; sometimes including live animals.
47 Impeach Trump The Trump impeachment effort ended with a vote of acquittal on February 5, 2020, just as the pandemic was taking off in the US
48 Defund Police A movement to re-focus police departments to social welfare duties.
49 Super Spreader A single person or event that propagates ‘clusters’ of the outbreak.   Some 20% of infected super spreaders could be responsible for 80% of viral transmission.
50 Dr. Deborah  Birx Dr. Deborah Birx is the  Coronavirus Response Coordinator, White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The Global Language Monitor

 

Typically, the Global Language Monitor ranks words, phrases, and names on three separate lists, and the lists are limited to 20 items. For this effort, GLM has combined the lists and extended the word count to 50 items. 

Global Language Monitor began recording the Top Words of the Year in 2000 to document the history of the 21st Century through the English language, the world’s first truly global language. The words are culled throughout the English-speaking world, which as of January 2018 ranks more than 2.58 billion speakers. Global Language Monitor employs its NarrativeTracker​ technologies for global internet and social media analysis.

NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the internet, blogosphere, and the top 300,000 print and electronic global media as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

In addition, the Global Language Monitor has also tracked the Top Words, Phrases and Names of the 21st Century.

More information about these and the company can be found at Languagemonitor.com.

About Global Language Monitor

Based in Austin, Texas, the Global Language Monitor collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. The company is known for its Word of the Year, political analysis, college and university rankings, high-tech buzzwords, and media analytics. For more information, visit Languagemonitor.com.

Media Contact:

Paul JJ Payack​
info@languagemonitor.com

pjjp@post.Harvard.edu

1 737.215.7750

Source: Global Language Monitor

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“Truth” is Top Word of the Year 2017 by The Global Language Monitor

 

The Only Analysis for Global English Worldwide

18th annual analysis by the Global Language Monitor

Weinstein Effect” (and #MeToo) is the Top Phrase and Xi Jinping is the Top Name of 2017

 
 Recently, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) announced that Truth is the Word of the Year for 2017.

 

For Immediate Release,

For More Information, call 001.512.801.6823 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com.

December 2017,  Austin, Texas (Updated) – Truth has been named the 2017 Word of the Year for Global English (#WOTY2017) by the Global Language Monitor, in its eighteenth annual global analysis. In addition, the Weinstein Effect has been named the Top Phrase and Chinese leader Xi Jingping the Top Name of 2017.  Following ‘Truth’ were the words Narrative, Opioids, Awoke, and Nuclear Option.  Rounding out the Top Ten were Deep State, Robot Apocalypse, Higher Level of Fake News, Blessee, and Lean Into. 

Since the turn of the century, the Global Language Monitor has been naming the words of global English that have had the most profound influence upon the language, the culture, and/or the world of the 21st century,” said Paul JJ Payack, President, and Chief Word Analyst.  GLM ‘s methodology, true to its Silicon Valley heritage, is to examine the totality of Global English with the tools now available to better understand the underlying trends that shape our words and, hence, our world.”

GLM tracks the top trending words three times during the year before the final assessment is released at year end.  Below are the Global Language Monitor’s 2017 Words of the Year for Global English.

 

Global Language Monitor’s 2017 Top Words of the Year for Global English

Rank, Word, Previous Rank, Definition 

  1. Truth (1) — Let’s face it.  The conversation is all about truth, or lack thereof.
  2. Narrative (2) — As GLM noted in ’08, Narratives began replacing facts in politics; a harbinger to ‘fake news’.
  3. Opioids (10) — More deaths than gun violence and automobiles crashed combined.
  4. Post-Truth (16) — Objective facts are less influential than appeals to emotion or the prevailing narrative.
  5. Woke (New) — Awakening to issues of social and racial justice.
  6. Brexit (4) — [United Kingdom] Definition according to Theresa May:  “Brexit means Brexit”.
  7. Blessee (New) — [RSA, South Africa] Those who are shown financial favor through a ‘Sugar Daddy’ (New)
  8. Non-binary (13) — Gender identity defined as neither male nor female.
  9. Anthropocene (15) — The current geological time period where human activities have had a major environmental impact on the Earth.
  10. Latinx (11) — Neologism for the Hispanic heritage of any stripe.
  11. Ransomware (New) — A type of malware where targeted sites are ‘captured’ and rendered useless until a ransom is paid to the hackers.
  12. Tradie (New) — [Australia] Short for any worker in the trades:  tradesmen, e.g., electricians (sparkies), truckers (truckies), chippies (carpenter) and the like.
  13. Flip (New) — Any quick financial transact5on meant to turn a quick profit, particularly involving real estate.
  14. Covfefe — The Trumpian Typo Heard ‘Round the world.
  15. #Resist — From Latin resistere, from re- + sistere to take a stand
  16. Appropriation (Cultural) — Now refers to the exploitation of an ‘ethnic’ culture by those of white European heritage.

Missed the Cut and former rank: Antifa (18), Alt-right (17), Bigly (5), and Populism (19)

 

Global Language Monitor’s 2017 Top Phrases of the Year for Global English

Rank, Word, Previous Rank, Definition Weinstein Effect (New) — (#MeToo) Emboldened women across the globe confront those who have been abused them in their past.

  1. Weinstein Effect (and #MeToo) (New) — Emboldened women across the globe confront those who have been abused them in their past.
  2. Nuclear Option (7) — The use of nuclear weapons by either side in the on-going and decades-long North Korean standoff.
  3. Deep State (New) — The idea that entrenched bureaucracies, beholden to no one, controlling the ship of state with little concern for elected officials.  In effect, a ‘Shadow’ government
  4. For Real (FR) (New) — [Indian] It took a half a century for the hip lingo of Venice Beach to proliferate to the call centers of India as FR.
  5. Robot Apocalypse (New) — The oncoming usurpation of Humankind by robots and other advanced forms of Artificial Intelligence.
  6. Fake News (New) — A higher level (and far more dangerous method controlling the news) through special relationships, the tight control of events, planting sources, and keeping the actual facts to a tight inner circle.
  7. Lean Into (New) — Being totally committed (or lean into) a cause, an initiative, or career choice.
  8. Non-binary (13) — Gender identity defined as neither male nor female.
  9. Memory Care (14) — Euphemism for treating Alzheimer and other forms of dementia
  10. Cultural Appropriation — Now refers to the exploitation of an ‘ethnic’ culture by those of white European heritage.

Missed the Cut and former rank: Alt-right (17), Dumpster Fire (9), Nuclear Option for US Senate (6), and Safe Place (20).

 

Global Language Monitor’s 2017 Top Names of the Year

Rank, Name

  1. Xi Jinping — General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
  2. Donald J. Trump — President of the United States of America; Trump took the Top Honors in 2016 and 2015.
  3. Pope Francis — Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, the Bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City.
  4. Angela Merkel — Angela Dorothea Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
  5. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin — President of Russia
  6. Theresa May — P)rime Minister of the United Kingdom
  7. Kim Jung Un — North Korean Strongman
  8. Narendra Modi — Prime Minister of India
  9. Donald Tusk — President of the European Commission
  10. Shinzō Abe — Prime Minister of Japan
  11. Justin Trudeau — Prime Minister of Canada
  12. Hurricane Harvey and Maria — Hurricanes that devastated Houston and Puerto Rico, respectively

Methodology:  The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 2.35 billion speakers (January 2018 estimate) GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 375,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

 

About the Global Language Monitor

In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known.

Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.

These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print, and electronic media, as well as the global fashion industry, among others.

For more information, call 1.512.801-6823, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

 



click tracking


The Moment and Weaponize: The Top Words of the Year 2018 for Global English

For more information call 1.737.215.7750, or email info@languagemonitor.com or tweet to @Languagemonitor

Updated Daily

 

The Moment: The Top Word of the Year 2018 for Global English (#WOTY)

Weaponize: The Top Word of the Year 2018 for the United States, alone.

Christmas - New Years Holiday,  2018, Austin, Texas — The Moment is the Top Word of the Year for 2018 (#WOTY) for Global English according to the Global Language Monitor,  while Weaponize is the is the Top Word of the Year (#WOTY) for the United States, alone.

This is the first time GLM’s analysis has determined two top WOTY.   This is because of the disparity between English-language usage between the US and the rest of the world especially in the language of politics,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst, Global Language Monitor.

This is GLM’s nineteenth annual analysis since the turn of the century.  Following The Moment and Weaponize were opioids, nukes (N.K.), woke, family separation, trade war, fake news, PyeongChang, and RepresentOther words in the running for the preeminent Word of the Year for 2018 included Collusion, ICE, World Cup, Twitter Storm, Wild Fires, Migrants, Fact Check, Volatility, Resistance, and Brexit.

GLM is the only WOTY, based upon global statistical analysis of the English -Linguasphere.   English is the world’s first truly global language with some 2.53 billion speakers as a first, second or business language.  (GLM has recently launched an effort to help better understand the number and composition of Global English speakers.)

The purpose of GLM’s Word of the Year lists is to provide an on-going account of the 21st century as it unfolds.  This is a Big Data analysis, with the English language as the medium of choice.

Today The Moment represents a larger than life experience, the convergence of, perhaps, fame, fortune, and happenstance representing a time of excellence or conspicuousness.  More importantly, it can be seen as where we now stand in the evolution of the flow of information,” Payack said.

As the definition of ‘the moment’ changes, we can see the shift after the year 2000 by way of Google NGrams

While news professionals were once intimidated by the prospect of a 24-hour News Cycle, with the accompanying ‘Fifteen Minutes of Fame’, the flow of information has increased a thousandfold or more.” Payack continued.  “Now ‘having a moment’ means standing astride the apex, an instant when all stars and light must pass through your gravitational field  (or bend around it). It also has evolved from an instant to an indeterminate length”.

The Moment defines a unique confluence of social and media forces where a person is elevated to a perceived pre-eminent position in their fields, situations, or positions.  For example, Meghan Markle had ‘her moment’ with her royal wedding to Prince Harry earlier this year,” Payack continued.  “Weaponize rose to the top of the US list, signifying the historically bitter level of the political invective, where any word, thought, or phrase is immediately weaponized and, in turn, catapulted back across the partisan divide.   “It has gotten to the point where even the absence of language — absolute silence — can and is being weaponized in the effort to silence the opposition.

Even Emojis have been ‘weaponized’.  Here is the ‘silence’ emoji

Previously, GLM announced that the Global English Word of the Year for 2017 was Truth, while the blood-soaked image of Omran Daqneesh, five-year-old, sitting in an ambulance while awaiting treatment in Allepo, Syria was the WOTY for 2016 (The first time a meme was chosen as a WOTY.)

The Top Words of 2018 for Global English follow:
  1. The Moment — A confluence of fame, fortune, and happenstance (Worldwide).
  2. Weaponize — In today’s bitterly partisan infighting, any word, action, or deed can and will be weaponized (US alone).
  3. Opioids — 60,000 Americans or more will die this year from overdoses:  more than from the entire Vietnam War — every year.
  4. North Korean Nukes — The threat appears to have subsided — for now.
  5. Woke — Being awakened to the causes of social justice
  6. Family Separation — Any number of worldwide challenges to the nuclear family.
  7. Trade War — Mr. Trump vs. the World, again.
  8. Fake News — Analysts are now pushing the origin of fake news backward into the past.  Anyone remember Leni Riefenstahl?
  9. PyeongChang — The Winter Games turned out to be the most politically consequential in decades.
  10. Represent — ‘Showing up’ or ‘representing’ at ‘resistance’ events and activities.
  11. Collusion — Collude’s etymology dates back to the early 1500s and literally means ‘to play together’ with no hint of the sinister undertones in the word’s present incarnation.
  12. ICE — The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
  13. World Cup — The quadrennial, global celebration of football (The 2018 FIFA World Cup, won by France, was the 21st FIFA World Cup.)
  14. Twitter Storm — President Trump early on realized that he had a direct connection to his sixty-million ‘followers’.
  15. Wild Fires — Representing all worldwide natural disasters. 
  16. Migrants (Worldwide) — Citizens have come to understand that national boundaries are quite malleable (for better or for worse). 
  17. Fact Check — By abandoning philosophy and the liberal arts, this generation actually believes that there is only one point of view and a single set of facts.
  18. Volatility — The global markets are volatile, the citizens are restless, and the Singularity is heading our way. 
  19. Resistance — Those who resist and will mince no words in informing you …
  20. Brexit (Soft or Hard Exit) — Nation-states are in a desperate race to save their national identities.

 

Top Phrases 

  1. #MeToo
  2. Shame! Shame! Shame!
  3. Cajun Navy
  4. Make America Great Again
  5. Blue Wave
  6. Breaking the Internet
  7. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
  8. Not My President

 

Top Names of 2018

  1. Donald Trump
  2. Xi Jinping
  3. Pope Francis
  4. M/M George H.W. Bush
  5. Vladimir Putin
  6. Brian Kavanaugh
  7. Elon Musk
  8. Stephen Hawkins
  9. Jack Ma (Ali Baba)
  10. Billy Graham
  11. Nancy Pelosi

 

Methodology:  The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 2.35 billion speakers (January 2018 estimate) GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 300,000 print, and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

The Top Words, Phrases, and Names of the 21st century follow.

2017:
Top Words: No. 1 Truth, No. 2 Narrative, No. 3, Opioids
Top Phrases:  No 1. Weinstein Effect (and #MeToo), 2. Nuclear Option (North Korean version.),  3. Deep State

Top Names: No. 1 Donald Trump, No. 2 Vladimir Putin, No. 3 Neil Gorsuch

2016:
Top Words: No. 1 Truth, No. 2 Narrative, No. 3, #Resist
Top Phrases: No. 1 Make America Great Again No. 2 When they go low, we go high No. 3 The Electoral College
Top Names: No. 1 Donald Trump, No. 2 Vladimir Putin, No. 3 Neil Gorsuch

2015:
Top Words: No. 1 Microaggression
Top Phrases: No. 1 Migrant Crisis
Top Names: No. 1 Donald J. Trump

2014:
Top Words: No. 1 The Heart ♥ Emoji (for love), No. 2 Hashtag, No. 3 Vape
Top Phrases: No. 1 Hands Up, Don’t Shoot; No. 2 Cosmic Inflation, No. 3 Global Warming
Top Names: No. 1 Ebola, No. 2 Pope Francis, No. 3 World War I

2013:
Top Words: No. 1 ’404’, No.2 Fail, No.3 Hashtag
Top Phrases: No. 1 Toxic Politics, No. 2 Federal Shutdown, No.3 Global Warming/Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1. Pope Francis, No. 2 ObamaCare, No.3 NSA

2012:
Top Words: No. 1 ApocalypseArmageddon, No.2 Deficit, No. 3 Olympiad
Top Phrases: No. 1 Gangnam Style, No. 2 Climate Change/Global Warming, No. 3 Fiscal Cliff
Top Names: No. 1 Newtown and Malala Yousafzai, No. 3 Xi Jinping

2011:
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No.2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Arab Spring, No. 2 Royal Wedding, No.3 Anger and Rage
Top Names: No. 1 Steve Jobs, No. 2 Osama bin-laden and Seal Team Six, No.3 Fukushima

2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Occupy, No.2 Fracking, No.3 Drone
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama

2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama

2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 “Yes, We Can!”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps

2007:
Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore

2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur

2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God

2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove

2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya

2002:
Top Word: Misunderestimate
Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)

2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros

2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)

For More Information, go to LanguageMonitor.com or call 1.737.215.7750 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com.

In 2003, The Global Language Monitor (GLM) was founded in Silicon Valley by Paul J.J. Payack on the understanding that new technologies and techniques were necessary for truly understanding the world of Big Data, as it is now known.

Today, from its home in Austin, Texas GLM provides a number of innovative products and services that utilize its ‘algorithmic services’ to help worldwide customers protect, defend and nurture their branded products and entities. Products include ‘brand audits’ to assess the current status, establish baselines, and competitive benchmarks for current intellectual assets and brands, and to defend products against ambush marketing.

These services are currently provided to the Fortune 500, the Higher Education market, high technology firms, the worldwide print, and electronic media, as well as the global fashion industry, among others.

As the AustinWordWrangler, GLM designs and creates websites, and ‘content:’  Public Relations, brand naming, corporate affairs and communications, and technical brochures, data sheets, SEC materials.

 
PJJP

Paul JJ Payack

President & Chief Word Analyst

The Global Language Monitor

Austin, Texas 78717

pauljjpayack@gmail.com Email+1.737.215.7750 Phone

@LanguageMonitor Twitter
@pauljjpayack  Personal Twitter

Metafiction.org

 Creative
 
Tracking Global Trends Through Big-Data Based Global English Analysis
 
 

 

  1. stest Rising

 

 

Intro to “Word of the Year” Phenomenon

Paul JJ Payack’s Brief Intro to the WOTY Phenomenon

Click to Play

 

 

 

 

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