As a writer and a reader and a talker and a listener, my world is defined by words as much as it is by sight and smell and touch. They are the indigo of my ink, the pigment of my paints, the marble of my Michelangelo.

Yes, if we were talking pyramids, words would be the blocks I'd be carving, then carefully fitting together into a structure meant to preserve and inspire for eons. Well, that would be the goal.

Given my undying amazement at the power of words, my fascination for their command and utility, and my fondness for tossing them around often and with emphasis, I'm am happy to announce the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year, 2006!

Founded in 1889, the American Dialect Society is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it. ADS members are linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, historians, grammarians, academics, editors, writers, and independent scholars in the fields of English, foreign languages, and other disciplines. The society also publishes the quarterly journal American Speech.
The American Dialect Society began choosing Words of the Year in 1990.

As announced at the 17 annual "Words of the Year" vote, the winner is ...

drum roll, please ...

Plutoed

This year's contest was a squeaker, with a run-off required between the ultimate winner and the very close runner-up, "climate canary".

The verb to pluto is defined thusly: to demote or devalue someone or something, as happened to the former planet Pluto with the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto no longer met its definition of a planet.

Among the other contenders for the 2006 honor:

murse = man's purse
flog = a fake blog created by a company to promote a product
lactard = a person who is lactose-intolerant
Fed-Ex = nickname for Britney Spears on-the-way-out husband
Fox lips = lips colored and lined with makeup to seem more prominent, said of female anchors on Fox News.

The winner in the "Most Outrageous" category:

Cambodian accessory: Maddox Jolie

Going back through the years, past winners include cyber from 1994, information super highway from 1993 and Not!, '92's word of the year.

Not surprisingly, 1991's winner was mother of all ... , with rollerblade dubbed most-likely-to-succed as a word, and if we go back to 1990, we find politically correct winning in the 'most outrageous' category.

From 2002, blog and google.

Some words that fit: metrosexual, meaning a fashion-conscious heterosexual male; flexitarian for a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat; and freegan being a person who eats only free food.

Some that may offend: cliterati, meaning feminist writers or leaders; neuticles are fake testicles for neutered pets; assoline is methanol used as fuel; and wall humping is the term used for rubbing a thigh against a security card scanner to allow access without removing the card from one's pocket.

Two of my personal favorites ... pajamahadeen (bloggers who challenge and fact-check traditional media), and prebuttal (a preemptive rebuttal).

If you want more, download the PDF ... which has most likely already been in contention.

I'll close with the hope that this part-time pajamahadeen doesn't get plutoed should a decider badly source my blog as multislacking or too many senior moments, thereby causing sudden loss of wealth syndrome.