A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: YAHOO: Top Stories: `Subprime' Is Linguists'
Word of Year (AP) CHICAGO - Even the American Dialect Society knows how risky
home mortgages are these days. The group of wordsmiths chose
"subprime" as 2007's Word of the Year at its annual convention
Friday. "`Subprime' has been around with bankers for awhile, but now
everyone is talking about `subprime,'" said Wayne Glowka, a spokesman
for the group and a dean at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Ga. "It's
affecting all kinds of people in all kinds of places." About 80 members of
the organization spent two days debating the merits of runners-up
"Facebook," "green," "Googleganger" and
"waterboarding" before voting for an adjective that means "a
risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage or investment." The choice
signifies the public's concern for a "deepening mortgage
crisis," the society said in a statement. "Facebook," as a noun,
verb or adjective, was popular with younger linguists, Glowka said.