Tonight will be the American Dialect Society’s annual vote for The Word of the Year!! Unfortunately, I’m not in Portland to vote. The list of nominees are here. My picks?

• Most Useful: even
• Most Creative: columbusing
• Most Unnecessary: lumbersexual
• Most Outrageous: second-amendment
• Most Euphemistic: thirsty
• Most Likely to Succeed: casual
• Least Likely to Succeed: platisher
• Most Notable Hashtag: #notallmen
• Word of the Year: Ebola

Some notes on my choices:

• “basic” is not “unnecessary.” The way I’ve heard my students use it, it’s actually quite useful as it describes a very particular type of person (think your most stereotypical jock/cheerleader from high school or sorority/fraternity sister/brother from college).
• There’s room in the world for “normcore” to succeed. I could probably self-identify as normcore now that I know what it means.
• While “God view” is pretty outrageous, “second-amendment,” is more widely applicable (sadly) for your average speaker.
• I’d never even heard the word “platisher” before reading this list.
• I think “casual” can replace “n00b” or “amateur” in a lot of contexts, so this one has real potential
• Ebola was kind of a big deal. Most people didn’t know anything at all about it and now everyone knows lots about it.