“Occupy”: Word of the Year

A neologism or new sense of a word catches on, unlike the many neologisms that didn’t, and lexicographers ratify what everyone else already knew: that lots of people were saying “occupy” this year, or that in Britain, the “squeezed middle” was the top political catchphrase of 2011. Merriam-Webster, being a dictionary maker, picked a word that many people looked up on its website, and so went with “pragmatic” instead of “occupy”.

Nonetheless, “occupy” is the frontrunner to win the Oscar of WOTYs, that given by the American Dialect Society.