The top words of 2003."Embedded," as in the reporters assigned to accompany military units during the war in Iraq, beat out "blog" and "SARS" as the top word of 2003, the website YourDictionary.com said. "Embedded' was the best word to distill dis·till v. 1. To subject a substance to distillation. 2. To separate a distillate by distillation. 3. To increase the concentration of, separate, or purify a substance by distillation. the events of an extraordinary year into eight simple letters," said Paul JJ Payack, president of YourDictionary. The website's choices for top phrase and top name also both come from the war in Iraq. * "Shock and awe Shock and awe, technically known as rapid dominance, is a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming decisive force, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of power to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and ," the phrase the U.S. military used to describe the type of campaign it would wage in Iraq, beat out other Iraq-related terms like "rush to war," "weapons of mass destruction Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, but exclude the means of transporting or ," and "spider hole A spider hole is U.S. military slang for a small one-person foxhole, often camouflaged so that it can be used for ambushes. A spider hole is typically a shoulder-deep, protective, round hole, often covered by a camouflaged lid, in which a soldier can stand and fire a weapon. " as the top phrase of 2003. * The name on most people's lips during the year was "Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (born April 28, 1937, Tikrit, Iraq—died Dec. 30, 2006, Baghdad) President of Iraq (1979–2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. ," elbowing out "Ahhnold" (as in newly elected California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) and "W" (as in U.S. President George W. Bush). The site's lists, created by taking nominations from users around the world and then having them judged by "professional wordsmiths," take some liberties with Bush. One of 2003's leading words is "Bushisms," to describe the president's oft-satirized verbal style. The site published a list of the president's top-five mispronunciations, including "new-cue-ler" (for nuclear) and "Anzar" (for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar). 2004 As for 2004, Payack said there was already an early contender. "Mad cow" was on the list a few years ago, because of what was happening in the U.K. "Mad cow' could be big next year," Payack said. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times' selections For his part, The New York Times' Tom Kuntz weighed in with at least one word beginning with every letter of the alphabet. Some of the selections are: A is for "augments"--people with implants that increase sensory capacity, like hearing, or change appearance, like breast implants Breast Implants Definition Breast implantation is a surgical procedure for enlarging the breast. Breast-shaped sacks made of a silicone outer shell and filled with silicone gel or saline (salt water), called implants, are used. . E is for "embed"--a journalist placed in a military unit during the American takeover of Iraq to cover its activities. G is for "globesity"--the worldwide epidemic of obesity, a term coined by the World Health Organization in 2001 that this year became huge. H is for "ham"--an ordinary e-mail message blocked because it includes one or more keywords common to spam, or unsolicited junk e-mail. (As in, "one person's spam is another person's 'ham,' hacker-speak for desirable e-mail"--The Associated Press, Jan. 17, quoting a scientist. L is for "latex"--one of numerous words that some would consider benign but that nevertheless sets off internet pornography blockers. P is for "pococurante Pococurante wealthy count who has lost his taste for most literature, art, music, and women. [Fr. Lit.: Candide] See : Disillusionment "--meaning indifferent, a word Sai See Statement of Additional Information. R. Gunturi of Dallas spelled correctly to win this year's Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. R is for "rumint" (ROOM-int)--intelligence based on rumors rather than facts, which some believe led to faulty conclusions about Iraqi weapons programs. Y is for "yottabyte"--or a million trillion megabytes, a term likely to become more popular as online data and computer memories expand in coming years to fill that amount of storage space. |
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