Most Outrageous Word of the Year

[quaoar]

From the American Dialect Society's annual awards for best and worst words of the year. This one was edited out of most papers.

The overall word of the year was red/blue/purple state.

Previous year's winners can be found hear:
http://www.americandialect.org/woty.html

http://slate.msn.com/id/2112150/

The Most Outrageous category is tricky; we never agree whether it's the word itself that's outrageous (typically for having some vulgar element, as in 2003's winner, cliterati, for "prominent feminists") or the concept (as with 2002's neuticles, "false testicles for neutered pets"). This year the strongest contender was santorum, defined (and heavily promoted) by sex writer Dan Savage—in a campaign to besmirch the name of right-wing Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum—as "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex." We dismissed one potential problem—that newspapers wouldn't print the term if it won—on the grounds that we shouldn't censor ourselves. And indeed, in the afternoon's voting, santorum did win, but many newspapers simply skipped this category in their coverage. So much for academic freedom.

[progressiveBadger]

1. Who would have thought a word from Savage Love would become so popular

lovin it...

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[slutticus]

2. Cliterati?

Oh my.

Neuticles?


LOL

[quaoar]

4. Maybe next year

'slutticus' can be a contender. LOL

Just have to think up a good definition for it.

[arbusto_baboso]

5. I've made up one of my own!!! : FRISTING

Fristing: Engaging in an unsafe sexual act with a Republican senator.

Think we can get it nominated next year?

[quaoar]

6. Wouldn't 'fristing'

involve unnatural acts with a cat?

[Taxloss]

7. I'd like to nominate "intelligent" and "intelligence"

The first as in "Intelligent Design", the fun new name for Creationist pseudoscience;

The second for pre-war Iraq "intelligence". A contradiction in terms if every there was one.