Top 10 Words of 2003:\
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blog\
SARS\
spam\
taikonaut\
Bushism\
allision\
recall\
Middangeard\
celibacy YourDictionary.com has released their Top Word Lists of 2003: the Top Ten Words of 2003, Top Ten Personal Names of 2003, Top Ten Youthspeak Words, Bonus Youthspeak Phenomenon of Note, Top Phrases of 2003, 5 Top Mispronunciations by President Bush in 2003, Best New Product Names, Worst New Product Names, Top Enron Inspired Words, Top Internet Words Moving into Widespread Use, Top Sports-related Words, and Top Word Trends in Pop Music Names.
Most of the words and terms in the lists I’d heard before, though there were a few exceptions (Poolife?). I thought this bit at the very end was especially cool, though…
Most frequently spoken word on the Planet:
1. OK Still the most popular word in languages around the world. “OK” originated in a joke in the 1830’s, spelled “oll korrekt” in Boston newspapers, the joke being, both words were incorrect. It became so popular, that it was soon abbreviated to simply “O. K.” Despite its popularity, the word would have fallen by the wayside had not Martin van Buren, called “Old Kinderhook” for being born in Kinderhook, N.Y. used it in his presidential reelection campaign of 1840. So don’t “misunderestimate” the impact of presidential usage on the growth of our vocabulary. It is also spelled “okay.”
(via Scoble)
Bonus list: In the comments to Scoble’s post, Raymond Chen pointed out Merriam-Webster’s top 10 words of 2003, as determined by how frequently they were looked up on the online dictionary: