The people at Merriam-Webster have announced their Word of the Year. It’s -ism. I hate to be that guy, but that is not even a word. It’s only a suffix. The dictionary compilers chose it because the most looked-up word of the year is “socialism”. Okay, wouldn’t that make “socialism” the Word of the Year? Merriam-Webster, however, noted that terrorism, fascism, racism and sexism were all popular searches as well. I guess they chose -ism to be even-handed or something. That, or they felt that picking socialism as the Word of the Year might result in the mass burning of dictionaries in some states.
Okay, so -ism barely qualifies as a word, but at least it’s got letters and things, unlike this watery fellow. It’s possible the Merriam-Webster people had enough of this emoji nonsense, and are just trying to antagonize the Oxford folks (who chose emoji as their word of the year), goading them into a lexicographer’s turf war.
