wordie word of the year 2008

reesetee Good idea, which. I'd intended to do that all through 08 but never seemed to remember.... Jan 9, 2009

whichbe Aw, thanks. This is what I'd recommend: through 2009 we anticipatorily tag words with woty09. Then we'll have a more comprehensive, less last-minute list of nominees to draw from next year and we could even do a narrowing-down process. Gangerh I implore you to host next years awards. Jan 9, 2009

plethora Thanks for all your hard work whichbe :)

Truly, you are a most devoted Wordie. Jan 9, 2009

gangerh Thank you, whichbe, for your splendid orchestration of this year's 'Oties'. Your awesome commentary is particularly pleasing. I eagerly await the Oty Award Ceremony. Can I be Toastmaster, please? Jan 9, 2009

chained_bear I think I voted for the winning LOTY, POTY, and TOTY. But I can't really remember and I'm far too lazy to go check my damn email.

I reluctantly admit the WOTY is not particularly pleasing to me. It smacks of those OTHER word sites and end-of-year-"best of" lists, not the brazenly original and quirky ones I'd expect from Wordie.

P.S. rolig, your second sentence is a festival of Wordiehol!! :) Jan 9, 2009

mollusque Multithanks, whichbe! Did anyone vote for all five of the winners, or all four of the "of the years"? Jan 9, 2009

rolig I too wish to extend my thanks to whichbe for such masterful organizing/juggling of phrases, lists, tags and words in a stunning display of the very opposite of multislacking. And congranulations and hippy birchday to our award-winging lastmaker Sionnatch! And congrats also to the_grene_kni3t, who first listed the WWOTY08 but seems to have been doing some multislacking of her/his own in the past couple months. And to Ms. C._Bear for her indefatigable defense of freedom in first listing the WPOTY08. Jan 9, 2009

reesetee Oh, it's going to be a looooong year.... ;-> Jan 9, 2009

chained_bear Sionnach? Why do you hate freedom??? Jan 9, 2009

chained_bear psst!! brackets!! Jan 8, 2009

sionnach Omigod! I am so verklemmt. This has got to be my BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Thanks to everybody who voted for my change one fetter, charge one letter, change one litter change one letter list. And a very special thanks to whichbe for coordinating and being such an engaging MC.

And to any sore losers out there, I just have one question:

Why do you hate freedom? Jan 8, 2009

pterodactyl Fantastic!

In joyful celebration of whichbe's skills as an MC, I offer this list: Whichbe hosts the 2008 Wordie Awards. Jan 8, 2009

yarb Yes, thanks whichbe for your more than capable administration.

And a happy 80th birthday to sionnach. Jan 8, 2009

reesetee Wahoo! Congratulations to all the winners! Especially sionnach, whom I now believe to be Elvis. Apparently he is still in the building. :-D

Thanks, whichbe, for doing the legwork and for your...uh...fascinating commentary!

*cut to 17 mins. of commercials* Jan 8, 2009

dontcry Awesome, whichbe! Thanks for the fun! Jan 8, 2009

chained_bear They're really more like ambulatory watermelons. Does that clear it up any?

I want to nominate sionnach's "Whining and fraud have no place here on Wordie" for next year's phrase of the year. Is it too early?

Also, a hearty "thank you" to whichbe for compiling everything. Congrats to the winners. Hear, hear! Jan 8, 2009

yarb I didn't realise those pesky baby tapirs showed up twice in the database. Jan 8, 2009

whichbe *TRUMPETS!@*

It’s time to announce the WINNERS of the 2008 Wordie Awards. This years voting panel consisted of merely 17 participants, so the results might have become unfairly weighted by "the regulars"--I will leave it to others to deem that appropriate or not. Let’s get right to it.

First up, the Ominous and Friendly Wordie Mascot™, a list compiled by the prestigious Prolagus.

We in fact only had 5 people vote on this particular category. One vote was cast for: cheesemite, skunk ape, ambulatory watermelon, squiddy, weirdpet, phantom limb. Two votes were cast for john mcgrath desktop buddy, and, our winner, with 3 votes...

*** Our new Wordie Mascot is: charging baby tapirs! what are you doing here.


Tag of the year, another pointedly unpopular voting topic. I've only recently explored tagging in the last few months myself, and have actually gone a little insane with it. Getting one tick o' the vote is special gift, not allowed, colon cancer, and freedomized. Managing to gleam the attention of two votes: ishkabilby, meta, quiet, and should be a swear. Special attention goes to █████ with 3 votes.

*** Our winner of Tag of the Year 2008, with four nods of validation, maintaining a degree of self-aware irony is... overtagged!

Sometimes we Wordies don't just methodically and obsessive-compulsively list words. Sometimes we load up our Phrasey Modules. For those phrases in the house (you know who you are!), this is for you.

Attracting enough attention for a vote, we have: nicely disrespectful, favor cancelled, charging baby tapirs! (more???), turd deflectors, cape horn voice, padded face hole, with noses woefully unlicked by monkeys, tie me to the mall with a malt of third, and sleep like a crew of hedgepigs in an ivy-tuft.

Now say that five times fast.

Snatching up two votes are some inedibles: yes we have no bananas, and syrup of ipecac. Three votes have done visited marathon of phony umbrage taking and gluppit the prawling strangles. Four votes bare witness to bristol stool scale (wtf??).

In these times you need to question your reality head-on with your phrases.

*** With that said, it makes me pleased to announce our five-vote winner of Wordie Phrase of the Year 2008... why do you hate freedom. So, why do ya, punk?

Some day aliens may stumble upon this site in some far distant post-apocalyptic feature and ask, "Is Wordie really about the words, or is about the lists?" To that I say: use onelook.com instead. But Wordie, dear wordie, a wonderful tool for compiling words in a universal, digital, nonspace-space cyberdrome. For this, we honor some of your lists.

Special enough to get listed (i.e. having just one vote), first up, we have: The Porn Birds by bilby, Words that shouldn't be used on a first date. by TaciturnYetProlix, The Measure of Man by reesetee, Hedgepiglet by yarb, Defunct professions by sionnach, Words and phrases that I would love to have on a Wordie T-shirt by Prolagus, Carol Wright Gifts by palooka, AND Nicknames you shouldn't give to an axe-wielding, loincloth-wearing barbarian warrior with bulging thews by pterodactyl.

That would’ve been a mouth-full had I spoke and not typed it.

Our lists that snagged two votes are: Oddball Opposites by reesetee, Eternal Questions by plethora, Dale counting sheep by sionnach, Squiddy by plethora, Things That Get Way More Fun When You Add a "G" to Them by chained_bear, My Little Phonies by whichbe, Wordie PRO! by Prolagus, AND Fictional music genres by yarb.

Our last 3 lists have broken from the pack. With four votes, we have An Arsenal for Civil Defunse by chained_bear. And with 6 votes, we have the much-esteemed sweet tooth fairy by gangerh (recently cited by John as the most-favorited list on Wordie).

*** Squeaking to victory with 7 votes, our Wordie List of the Year 2008 is... Change one letter by sionnach. Happy birthday!

Our last category had a huge vote-spread... not surprising with over 50 nominees! Word of the Year 2008 has the honor of being burned into our collective brains like a rat-infused plague for longer than it may deserve. I Report, You Decide.

Words getting one vote: clinchpoop, bovilexia, ataraxia,git, unvetted, preworry, bailout, blet, eyefeel, fernando poo, limn, zwartbles, aceituno, omphaleriomagnetism, schadenfreudgeon, and rhodorhinorangifericide.

Scoring two votes: mono no aware, omgwtfbbq, cephalopygian.

Three-votees: teh alsome, 7457 (wtf?), tappen (this was my initial prediction as the winner), and blatteroon (such a lovely word).

A surprise second-place goes to muffineer, with 4 votes.

*** The winner has 6 votes and is perhaps an embarrassingly honest declaration of Wordie's core itself, thus deserving of the glory that is, of course, the Wordie Word of the Year 2008.

The winner is... multislacking!

Thanks ya’ll, for making my 2008 Wordie adventures grand. Some follow-up notes to come in a bit. Jan 8, 2009

dontcry Happy birfday, 'nach! Jan 8, 2009

sionnach Gentlemen! Please, you're embarrassing yourselves. Whining and fraud have no place here on Wordie.

Tee-hee. I'm off in search of birthday hash browns. Jan 8, 2009

reesetee Wait--Pro, isn't your birthday Jan. 8th too? And mine! Mine is also Jan. 8th! What a coincidence!

*pulling hard on sionnach's wool hat* Jan 8, 2009

Prolagus That's not fair! Jan 8, 2009

plethora Elvis AND Bowie, 'nach.

You have a rockin' birthday. Jan 8, 2009

sionnach Tomorrow (the 8th) is my birthday. Yes, I share a birthday with Elvis. Think how much simple joy you could bring me by having me wake up on my special day only to find that one of MY words (or lists) has been chosen as a winner.

Not that I would ever stoop to trying to influence the jury; no, not I. Jan 8, 2009

reesetee Ow! That hurt my eyes! Jan 8, 2009

whichbe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (reminder!) Jan 8, 2009

whichbe Well, today is the last day to vote! Results will be posted tomorrow. You need not be a long-standing Wordie user to vote for any of these--all that's required is having an opinion and an email account.

You can vote for UP TO THREE nominees in any category.

Check out the nominations list on the tag woty08.

There's also Wordie List of The Year 2008,
Phrase of the Year,
and Tag of the Year.

(and Prolagus says mascot too) Jan 7, 2009

dontcry Done! I just voted for two more in woty and loty categories. Whew...close one... Jan 6, 2009

whichbe dontcry: you can revote listing 3 if you'd like. Jan 6, 2009

dontcry THREE??? I only voted for one! *runs around wordie like a chicken without a head* Jan 6, 2009

bilby Nice email address, whichy. Jan 6, 2009

whichbe Two more days to vote! Jan 6, 2009

Prolagus And mascot! Jan 5, 2009

whichbe It's very close so your vote can easily determine the winners. Jan 5, 2009

whichbe ATTENTION: TIME TO VOTE! I will do a tally of the votes on the 8th, in a week. Jan 1, 2009

plethora I nominate tappen! Dec 27, 2008

dontcry multislacking gets my hands-down vote. If it doesn't win I'll just hork. Dec 27, 2008

rolig For me the most wonderful word I learned on Wordie in 2008 was mono no aware. I fully agree with Mollusque about the horrible, snicker-inducing, bartesque word hork. Dec 26, 2008

sionnach
WHO WILL BE THE 10,000TH WORDIE??? Dec 24, 2008

sionnach How about zwartbles? Dec 24, 2008

skipvia I'm partial to raccoonnookkeeper for its spectacular visual appeal and and in spite of the fact that it's monumentally difficult to type. Dec 24, 2008

mollusque Please, not hork. I almost signed off of Wordie last time that word got significant play. Dec 24, 2008

reesetee *snicker* Dec 23, 2008

chained_bear *snort* Dec 23, 2008

Prolagus Well, then I suggest my omphaleriomagnetism too :) Dec 23, 2008

sionnach In the spirit of nominating one's own child again and again until all the other children have developed motley skin diseases with unsightly blemishes and/or those old fogies on the Nobel committee come to their senses and recognize true freakin' genius when it's right under their non-glowing noses, and noting that somewhere in Västerbotten, yet another exsanguinated reindeer lies dead in a snowdrift:

RHODORHINORANGIFERICIDE

Try it out, roll it around the tongue. It's got good mouthfeel. It's got Graeco-Latin street cred (unlike, say, certain crazed 'nominees' beginning with 'schad' and ending in 'geon', who really should reapply to be considered for the Wordie SNWotY08* award). This word fills a need.

Won't you vote for it this year, so that the senseless yuletide reindeer carnage can finally end?

But I'd be happy with a cephalopygian win too.

*: Special Needs Word of the Year 2008 Dec 23, 2008

chained_bear Yes, that's why I mentioned madeupical. It has entered the Wordie lexicon, so to speak, and is a mighty, mighty word to have chosen to represent an entire year (2007).

Other words/phrases that seem to have been used outside of their original contexts on the site include hork (of course), gluppit the prawling strangles, teh alsome or just alsome, Weirdnet, eyefeel, cephalopygian... Dec 23, 2008

reesetee Think more, think more! Dec 23, 2008

Prolagus I will probably go for hork. But I need to think a little more about it. Dec 23, 2008

reesetee Madeupical, I'm proud to say, was WOTY for 2007. :-) Dec 23, 2008

chained_bear You can nominate whatever you want. Generally, in the past at least, it's been a word that excited much comment and usage across the site. Madeupical springs to mind. Hork is another. *runs off to nominate it* Dec 23, 2008

reesetee Most of the action for 2007 happened here and here, with a little here. In the end, for some reason, seanahan chose the winners, but the original intent was to have Wordies nominate, then vote on winners.

Of course, we started earlier last year, I think. Don't know about everyone else, but this is quite a busy week to get this going. Still, I'm game! :-)
Dec 23, 2008

BrainyBabe I nominate blet, just because I like it. Dec 23, 2008

BrainyBabe Is the spirit of this to nominate a word coined or popularised in 2008, or one which sums up the zeitgeist? Or is it more like the Nobel Prize, that you just keep tactically voting for your favourites year after year until the right one wins, eventually? Dec 23, 2008

BrainyBabe Is the spirit of this to nominate a word coined or popularised in 2008, or one which sums up the zeitgeist? Or is it more like the Nobel Prize, that you just keep tactically voting for your favourites year after year until the right one wins, eventually? Dec 23, 2008

chained_bear Nifty, mollusque! Continuity. I like it. Dec 23, 2008

mollusque I've tagged nominees with woty08. (Last year's tag was woty07.) Dec 23, 2008

gangerh Schadenfreudgeon, schurely? Dec 23, 2008

frindley I nominate git. Dec 23, 2008

whichbe Wordie List of The Year 2008 is a great idea. Dec 23, 2008

jennarenn Oh, fun. Are we doing Lists of the Year as well? Dec 23, 2008

Telofy Being rushed I'm afraid this choice might be subject to alterations, yet for now my nominee is ataraxia. Dec 22, 2008

pollyanna The elections in America were such an overblown event this year so I recommend unvetted. Dec 22, 2008

whichbe I nominate omgwtfbbq. Dec 22, 2008