Rat Brain

TOP TEN WOULD-BE WORDS SUBMITTED TO MERRIAM-WEBSTER IN 2010
Posted by Larissa MacFarquhar

By the time the Merriam-Webster Dictionary decides to admit a new word to its collection, it tends to have a retro, ten-minutes-ago, old-black feel to it (frenemy, staycation, webisode). But each year, hopeful lexophiles submit dozens of prospective words, both found and coined, and it is here that the future can be glimpsed. After all, as that old frenemy Heidegger liked to say, language is the house of the truth of Being. Here are my top ten candidate words from this year.

1) porch (verb): to spend time on a porch
Submitted by: Elaine or Lainey from West Virginia on Nov. 08, 2010 10:39

2) dogfood (verb): to use a product or technology within the company that produces it
Submitted by: Harold Nolte from Utah on Oct. 20, 2010 03:25

3) ecotistical (adjective): feeling self-important due to conservationist ecological practices
Submitted by: Big Papa G from Arkansas on Oct. 18, 2010 14:48

4) Enggalog (noun): a combination of English and Tagalog
Submitted by: Anonymous on Oct. 12, 2010 08:13 
or Spiddish (noun) : a combination of Spanish and Yiddish
Submitted by: C. Vargas from Minnesota on Mar. 08, 2010 06:44

5) BMW (abbreviation): beautiful mature woman
Submitted by: Anonymous on Aug. 23, 2010 16:07

6) doga (noun): yoga for or with dogs
Submitted by: J.C. Moore from Pennsylvania on May. 20, 2010 12:35

7) auxer (noun): a call center agent who is allowed to take his or her break
Submitted by: jasy from Philippines on Mar. 21, 2010 03:32

8) snirt (noun): a mix of snow and dirt
Submitted by: Anonymous on Feb. 28, 2010 20:13

9) fext (verb): to pretend to send a text message
Submitted by: James Burham from Iowa on Feb. 08, 2010 09:38

and, for some reason my favorite

10) sidegrade (verb): to replace (something) with something that is neither better nor worse
Submitted by: EgoDuJour from New York on Apr. 20, 2010 09:57

Read more from The New Yorker’s 2010: The Year in Review.

I’m able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don’t watch snuff films and you make them. You weren’t killing that animal for food or shelter or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I’ve tried and tried and for the life of me, I can’t make a distinction between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to prison for doing. I’m able to make the distinction with no pangs of hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face.

So I don’t think I will save my condemnation, you phony pioneer girl. (I’m in film and television, Cruella, and there was an insert close-up of your manicure while you were roughing it in God’s country. I know exactly how many feet off camera your hair and make-up trailer was.)

And you didn’t just do it for fun and you didn’t just do it for money. That was the first moose ever murdered for political gain. You knew there’d be a protest from PETA and you knew that would be an opportunity to hate on some people, you witless bully. What a uniter you’d be — bringing the right together with the far right.