The 1,000,000th English Word is Web 2.0
Scris de burdujan pe 10/06/2009
English passed the Million Word mark earlier today, June 10 at 10:22 am GMT.
Austin, Texas June 10, 2009 – The Global Language Monitor today announced that Web 2.0 has bested Jai Ho, N00b and Slumdog as the 1,000,000th English word.
Web 2.0 is a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services.
It has crossed from technical jargon into far wider circulation in the last six months.
Two terms from India, Jai Ho! and slumdog finished No. 2 and 4.
Jai Ho! is a Hindi exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment;
Slumdog is an impolite term for children living in the slums.
Just missing the top spot was n00b, a mixture of letters and numbers that is a derisive term for newcomer.
It is also the only mainstream English word that contains within itself two numerals.
At its current rate, English generates about 14.7 words a day or one every 98 minutes.
The English language is now being studies by hundreds of millions around the globe for entertainment, commercial or scientific purposes.
In 1960 there were some 250 million English speakers, mostly in former colonies and the Commonwealth countries.
The future of English as a major language was very much in doubt.
Today, some 1.53 billion people now speak English as a primary, auxiliary, or business language, with some 250 million acquiring the language in China alone.
These are the ten finalists for the one millionth English word, all of which have met the criteria of a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution, and depth of citations.
1,000,000: Web 2.0 – The next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you.
999,999: Jai Ho! – The Hindi phrase signifying the joy of victory, used as an exclamation, sometimes rendered as “It is accomplished”. Achieved English-language popularity through the multiple Academy Award Winning film, “Slumdog Millionaire”.
999,998: N00b — From the Gamer Community, a neophyte in playing a particular game; used as a disparaging term.
999,997: Slumdog – a formerly disparaging, now often endearing, comment upon those residing in the slums of India.
999,996: Cloud Computing – The ‘cloud’ has been technical jargon for the Internet for many years. It is now passing into more general usage.
999,995: Carbon Neutral — One of the many phrases relating to the effort to stem Climate Change.
999,994: Slow Food — Food other than the fast-food variety hopefully produced locally (locavores).
999,993: Octomom – The media phenomenon relating to the travails of the mother of the octuplets.
999,992: Greenwashing – Re-branding an old, often inferior, product as environmentally friendly.
999,991: Sexting – Sending email (or text messages) with sexual content
