Three major publications released their annual words of the year last month. Dictionary.com. Merriam Webster’s. And Oxford Dictionaries. All use different methods to determine the word of the year, which is why each one decided on a different word.
😂
-ism
Identity
Those are the three words picked by the three companies above. Yes, the emoji was one of them. And yes, “-ism” was another. I have no say in this conversation, but an emoji? Really? I won’t even say which company released it as their word of the year because I find the whole thing ridiculous.
And “-ism”. Welp.
At least identity is an actual word. So kudos to one of the three. Ugh.
What do you think of the three words of the year? I was expecting actual words, but I guess that was too much to ask.
Johnny Reads 
I demand a recount! Emojis are punctuation marks, not words.
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Oh dear. This is worse than when “selfie” became recognised as a word.
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I realized our language was doomed when Homer Simpson’s “doh” made the cut for Oxford.
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I think selfie might have been one of the words of 2014. 😳
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Also… ” Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism’s in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, “I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.” Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I’d still have to bum rides off people.” – Ferris Bueller
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Agreed. I remember when I first read about the word of the year that people were looking up different -ism’s once the presidential race came into the picture. Socialism. Fascism. Capitalism. I think people wanted a better understanding of what the candidates were saying. I don’t think more traffic for those types of words online necessarily means more people are buying into them. But maybe.
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I completely agree.
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😁
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I prefer ISH to ism. Like I’ll be there at 6 ish. It implies I am asking for a little leeway. LOL.
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Do you use it for things besides time? Like “I want my steak cooked-ish.” 😂
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hrm, certainly not for food, some things should be precise. I use when playing cards, like bidding in Spades. 3 ish, 3 and sort of thing.
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Oh. I’m not familiar with Spades.
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Pfft. Shame. Though I’m pretty sure you’ve used that emoji more than any other this past year.
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How did you know!? Are you stalking me?
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Wouldn’t you like to know…
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Uh oh.
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The funny thing is that only identity is identifiable as a word.
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Mhm.
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The emoji just shows how language is developing, morphing into something different – though I agree, I wouldn’t describe it as a word as such. I could be an old duffer and say that emojis are pictograms, which is where language started originally – I could make some grumpy statement about language taking a backwards step … But I won’t 🙂
And don’t you need to attach ish to another word for it to make sense?
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Language is evolving. Did you know over a thousand words fall out of use each year in the English language? 😭 Hahaha just kidding. Made it up. But did you mean ish or -ism?
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Ha! It may not be a thousand, but there are certainly a few that lexicographers remove from dictionaries each time theyr’re compiled.
And I meant ism. I admit to using ‘ish’ willy nilly
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I’m sure. And yes, -ism can’t be used on its own. Needs a word to latch on to.
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The first two are not words to me, so it looks like only one word was chosen as the word of the year for 2015. I refuse to accept the first two as actual words 🙂
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Hmmm. I can’t say I disagree with that!
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