The Greatest Words and Phrases of 2015

What’s your word or phrase of the year? Do any stand out? Or, are they pretty much non-events?

The video above is Anglophenia Episode 45 and deals with some of the top words and phrases from 2015. While I might quibble with whether Kate is, in fact, a YouTuber, she is nevertheless as perky as the best YouTubers are, which is part of why she’s good at presenting these videos.

When a word or phrase makes a list of biggest of the year, it’s because it’s popular, of course. It doesn’t usually make it into dictionaries until some time later, after it’s clearly in common use and proven its staying power. However, it’s often quite some time after that before it becomes acceptable for Scrabble and the like, and by that time the word may already be passing out of usage.

I love language, and how it adapts and evolves over time. As much as I can seem pedantic about correct usage (like apostrophes, for example), I’m actually quite relaxed about it all: Language will become whatever we need it to become, which is why attempts to police it are ultimately futile.

At any rate, Kate does do some good videos, whether she’s a YouTuber or not. LOLZ.