The American Dialect Society has chosen “Plutoed” as US word of the year for 2006
The word “plutoed” is used to describe someone who has been demoted or devalued, just like former planet Pluto when its status was downgraded.
The American Dialect Society was founded in 1889. It is a society “dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it”. The Society publishes American Speech, an academic journal.
This is the 17th time ADS members have voted to choose a word of the year. Other winners include “information superhighway”, “metrosexual” and “truthiness” (popularized on The Colbert Report).
Other words in the running for the 2006 prize included “flog” (an advertisement disguised as a blog or web log), “prohibited liquids” (fluids that cannot be transported by passengers on airplanes) and “macaca” (an American citizen treated as an alien).
Macaca is considered by some to be a racial slur and was used by former Senator George Allen (who had a comfortable lead in the polls ahead of last November’s Congressional elections) when he referred to the son of Indian immigrants as a macaca. Mr Allen later lost his senate seat to Democrat Jim Webb.
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