In the 12 months that have included buzzwords such as “swine flu”, “Obama”, “stimulus” and even “vampire”, “Twitter” has emerged as 2009’s English-language word of the year.
The Global Language Monitor bestowed the honour upon “Twitter”, after tracking words and phrases in the media and on the internet via its Predictive Quantities Indicator.
Twitter, the title of the popular micro-blogging site, beat out “Obama”, “H1N1”, “stimulus”, and “vampire” to take the honour.
“In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic, the after effects of a financial tsunami, and the death of a revered pop icon (Michael Jackson), the word ‘Twitter’ stands above all the other words,” Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor, said in a statement.
“Twitter represents a new form of social interaction, where all communication is reduced to 140 characters. Being limited to strict formats did wonders for the sonnet and haiku. One wonders where this highly impractical word-limit will lead as the future unfolds.”
