By Staff
Leada DeVaney, Hartselle Enquirer
Talk about a sign of the times.
The American Dialect Society recently selected "weapons of mass destruction" as its 2002 Word of the Year.
It joins 2001's equally sobering phrase "9-11," pronounced, according to the society, as "9-11" and not "9-1-1."
Weapons of mass destruction, known among the hip and happening linguists as "WMD," beat out other up-beat favorites such as "regime change" and "Iraqnaphobia," a really good one that referred to fear of that crazy country.
I'm not a member of the American Dialect Society (although I hear they throw a mean St. Patrick's Day bash). I do think, however, as a member of the media, I have some insight on words and word choices. I thought I would venture into this field with a couple of choices for my own words that I feel sum up our past year, or that are just pretty cool.
I will go ahead and predict one of next year's phrases, based on this new reality-based televison show: poor guy gets dumped by really mad television chick.
Look at it this way: Decades ago, a public official who lied was said to be "like Nixon." In the 1990s, that changed to pulling a "Clinton." Now, we can call such people "Franphonies."
See – even words have to change with the times.