Audacity of 'Austerity,' 2010 Word of the Year

[Elmore Furth]

This has been a hard year for a lot of Americans and people worldwide.

Austerity is a tough think to look forward to.

Happy Holidays!

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 20, 2010
6:19 a.m. EST

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — As Greece faced a debt crisis, the government passed a series of strict austerity measures, including taxes hikes and cutting public sector pay.

The move sparked angry protests, strikes and riots across the country as unemployment skyrocketed and the crisis spread to other European nations. The move also incited a rush to online dictionaries from those searching for a definition.

Austerity, the 14th century noun defined as "the quality or state of being austere" and "enforced or extreme economy," set off enough searches that Merriam-Webster named it as its Word of the Year for 2010, the dictionary's editors announced Monday.

"What we look for ... what are the words that have had spikes that strike us very much as an anomaly for their regular behavior," Morse said. "The word that really qualifies this year for that is 'austerity'."




Audacity of 'Austerity,' 2010 Word of the Year

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 20, 2010
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. Filed at 6:16 a.m. EST

Merriam-Webster's annual Words of the Year dating to 2003, when the publisher started making the selection:

2010: Austerity — "enforced or extreme economy."
2009: Admonish — "to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner."
2008: Bailout — "A rescue from financial distress."
2007: W00t — "Expression of joy or triumph, or an obvious victory; abbreviation of 'We Owned the Other Team,' originating from computer-gaming subculture."
2006: Truthiness — "Truth that comes from the gut, not books." Popularized by Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert; selected as Word of the Year by Merriam-Webster's online users.
2005: Integrity — "Firm adherence to a code; incorruptibility."
2004: Blog — "A Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Short for Weblog."
2003: Democracy — "Government by the people, especially: rule of the majority, or: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."


Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year