MY KIND OF NEWS

According to CNN.com, the American Dialect Society has chosen its Word of the Year for 2006. The word is...(drumroll please)...PLUTOED. Yes, it seems that Pluto, the planet recently rejected, abandoned, cast aside by the International Astronomical Union has been rescued, cleaned up, and crowned a winner, once again, by a society dedicated to the study of the English language in North America.

For those of you who don't already know (ahem), "to pluto" is "to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet." Among other words in the running for Word of the Year, my favorite is "macaca" or "macaca moment," which is defined as "treating an American citizen as an alien." The hands down funniest selection on the list (download the pdf from the society's website) is "sudden jihad syndrome," or "an outburst of violence from a seemingly stable and normal Muslim." I couldn't stop laughing after reading that one.

Don't you just LOVE the fluidity of language?

I wonder how one becomes a member of the American Dialect Society. RR, being a member of the Jane Austen Society, an educator, and a former NOD (Revenge of the Nerddd's Nerddd of the Day) might very well know. RR?