Wordsmith Declares 'Spillcam' Top Word of 2010

(Nov. 15) -- There are still six weeks left in 2010, but word has it, the word of the year has already been chosen: "spillcam."

That's the final word from Paul JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor, a group that tracks word usage trends worldwide.

"We search millions of websites and more than 75,000 print and radio outlets looking for global English terms that stuck out during the year," Payack told AOL News. "We analyze the terms that come up most often and then monitor whether it increases or decreases over time."

Damien Meyer, AFP / Getty Images

Vuvuzelas like these made such an impact during the World Cup that the term has been chosen one of 2010's top words by the Global Language Monitor.

Sometimes, words or phrases that are popular one year have little staying power, such as "chad," a top word in 2000 that now is rarely used except in references to the 2000 presidential election.

Other times, the words do catch on and become part of the linguistic lexicon.

"'Wardrobe malfunction' and 'misunderestimate' are two that come to mind," Payack said. "All in all, I'd say 10 to 25 percent of words that become big one year stick around."

This year, "spillcam" gushed out as No. 1 after BP used one to beam the immensity of the gulf oil spill around the world, while "vuvuzela" is another word that made a loud noise this year.

Payack and the Global Language Monitor also had strong words for the term "the narrative," which, in political terms, has replaced "the platform" as a political party's main way of conveying its message.

"Every time you turned on the TV, the pundits were talking about 'the narrative,'" Payack said.

Other words that made their mark include:

"Refudiate," a mixture of "refute" and repudiate" that Payack says has been around for years but really came into its own thanks to Sarah Palin.
"Guido" and "Guidette," from "Jersey Shore." Payack thinks these words could have staying power since they describe a certain subculture of people.
"Snowmageddon," a contraction of "snow" and "Armageddon" that was used to describe major snowstorms on the U.S. East Coast and northern Europe last winter.
"3D," which, of course, has been around for years but has become a term to describe "robustness" in products like toothpaste.

Although Barack Obama's popularity took a hit this year, the president is still responsible for popularizing many terms, including "teachable moment," "shellacking" and "Obamamania," a term that has dropped in usage in recent months.

"You'd think that 'ObamaCare' would have also made the list, but it's mainly used by the media," Payack said.

Obama not only is blamed for massive losses in the 2010 election, but his name isn't as big, either.

The president dropped to No. 3 on the "most popular name" list, below Chinese President Hu Jintao and the iPad.

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