An award for words that have reached their peak in the linguistic zeitgeist
Words Have Lives, Too
This award is for words that, based on no objective measure other than my own ears, have reached their peak in common usage in the previous year. They must be single words, not phrases. This award isn't about long-standing corporate jargon ("leverage," "synergies," "whiteboard") or trendy new words that dictionary publishers recognize each year ("rizz," "sus"). It's about words that, like a virus, have reached the peak of their powers and are hopefully now in recession.