Top Ten Words of 2006: Websters Online Poll

Each year the American Dialect Society comes up with it's words of the year. As a preparation for the voting, which will occur on January 7, 2007 at the societies annual meeting, Webster's held an online poll of the words of the year.

Based on votes on their Website the word of the year for 2006 is truthiness. Truthiness, a noun, originally introduced on the Colbert Show was defined as truth that comes from the guts not the book. Last year this word was the word of the year by the American Dialect society and they defined it as the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true.

Coming in at number two was Google. Yes, the search engine has apparently become a very popular word and everyone seems to be "googling" something. It is described in the online Webster's dictionary as the trademark for the search engine and to use said search engine to obtain information about something or someone on the web.

The third word on the list is decider. This word just means the one who does the deciding. Listed synonyms include determiner, settler, ruler and resolver.

The next word on the list is war. This word became a very popular word this year with the War in Iraq filling many peoples minds. War is defined as the state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations.

The fifth word on the list is insurgent, another word popularized due to the War in Iraq. Insurgent is defined as a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government. It is also listed as one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one's own country.

Terrorism is the sixth word on the list and is defined as the use of terror especially as a means of coercion. These words show that the War in Iraq is fresh in all of our minds and that words common with the conflict grace our daily vocabulary.

The next word is vendetta and is defined as a blood feud or a prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful or hostile acts.

The eighth word on the list is sectarian. The word is defined characteristic or relating to a sect.

Word number nine was quagmire meaning either a soft land that shakes or yields under the foot or a difficult, precarious or entrapping position.

The last word on the last was corruption. The word means impairment of integrity, virtue or moral principle.
It seems from the list that the words of the year are ones of violence and difficulty. Do these words show a trend towards a more violent world?