At 5:22am ET today, “Web 2.0” became the 1 millionth word or phrase in the English language, according the Global Language Monitor. Other words immediately preceding ‘Web 2.0’ were ‘Jai Ho,’ ‘n00b,’ ‘slumdog,’ ‘cloud computing’ and ‘carbon neutral’ in descending order. What’s surprising to me is not just that so many of the neologisms come from the world of technology, but how long it takes them to achieve sanctified status. The coinage of the term Web 2.0 goes back to the 20th century – hell, Tim O’Reilly has been hosting a conference by that name since 2004. By contrast, the movie Slumdog Millionaire, from which ‘Jai Ho’ and ‘slumdog’ obviously got their push into officialdom, came out just last November. And consider #999,993 – “octomom” – which comes from the octuplets born to Nadya Suleman. That just happened this past January!
The point is we in the technology industry live in more of a bubble than we might realize. Say “Web 2.0” to someone over 50 and not involved in technology and you’re likely to get blank stares, as I recently discovered. Whereas only the most committed opponent of pop culture wouldn’t know about the Octomom. And ironically it’s Web 2.0 in the form of Facebook, Twitter, blogs and a million other outlets which has made that so.
Incidentally, #1,000,001 was ‘financial tsunami.’ Hopefully that’s not an ominous sign for the next million words in English.
So what other technology terms should be granted official status? “Sexting”? Already on the list. “Defriend”? Already on the list. Maybe “Web 3.0” is next; seems likely inside the tech bubble at least.
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Gotta love the buzzwords we (sometimes unwittingly) help make famous. My two cents on what’s in store next year: “tweet” (perhaps a second definition to the existing “make a weak chirping sound”) and “crowdsourcing.”
What number is “neologism?”
Maybe it’s the NYC snark, but that’s way too convenient of a millionth word. I smell PR afoot…
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