Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success

In 1990, Metcalf (How We Talk: American Regional English Today), executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, had the idea that the ADS should choose an annual New Word of the Year. That year, the winner was the shortlived bushlips (""insincere political rhetoric""). Some of the ADS's other choices fell into obscurity just as quickly, prompting Metcalf to write this entertaining investigation of which new words have staying power, and why. He discusses winners (1941's teenager) and losers (1995's schmoozeoisie, ""a class of people who earn their living by talk""); reveals the forgotten jokes behind familiar terms like couch potato and gerrymander; and shows that the success of a word has little to do with whether or not it fills a gap in the English language. Metcalf also describes his system for predicting the success of au courant words (he gives weapons-grade high marks for endurance, while consigning quarterlife crisis to the ash heap). Edifying and humorous, this little book is irresistible fun.