Not surprisingly, the American Dialect Society voted “subprime” the word of the year for 2007.
At a voting session in Chicago on January 4, the group said the word was chosen because it provided a rare example from the banking sector that has become a part of everyday conversation.
“When you have investment companies losing billions of dollars over something like bundled subprime loans, then you have to consider whether it’s important,” said American Dialect Society spokesman Wayne Glowka, in a statement.
“You probably also want to think about paying off that third mortgage.”
It beat out competition from terms such as Facebook, green, water-boarding, and Googleganger.
Among related citations, the term “Ninja“, which means no income, no job, no assets, (no-doc loan) was also highlighted.
Other real estate terms nominated included “scratch and dent loan”, “exploding ARM“, and “liar’s loan“.
In 2006, the word of the year was “plutoed”, in reference to the planet losing its classification, preceded by the word “truthiness” in 2005, as made popular on the Colbert Report.
Founded in 1889, the American Dialect Society includes academics, amateurs, teachers and writers who study the English language in North America.
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