Erin McKean,
editor in chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary 2e, said “The
increasing use of the word carbon neutral reflects not just the
greening of our culture, but the greening of our language. When you see
first graders trying to make their classrooms carbon neutral, you know
the word has become mainstream.”
Runners up included (Can you believe 'funner' didn't win, as in' now that was a 'funner'.):
CSA
(community-supported agriculture: a system of food distribution where
individual consumers purchase a season’s worth of regularly delivered
allotments of the vegetables, fruit, dairy, or other agricultural
products grown on a small, usually family-owned farm or orchard.)
DRM (digital
rights management: hardware or software that controls access and use of
digital data, access and uses that may be disapproved of by rights
owners, but that are not necessarily illegal.)
dwarf planet
(a new designation for planetlike objects [such as Pluto] that are
round and orbit the sun, but have not cleared other objects from their
orbits. The word pluton was also proposed as a term for planetlike
objects beyond Neptune, with Pluto as their prototype.)
elbow bump
(a greeting in which two people touch elbows, recommended by the World
Health Organization as an alternative to the handshake in order to
reduce the spread of germs.)
fishapod
(a humorous name for a newly discovered fossil [Tiktaalik roseae] that
has features of both fish and land mammals and as such is considered an
evolutionary link between the two.)
funner (an informal/nonstandard comparative of fun.)
ghostriding
(the practice of exiting a moving vehicle and dancing either beside it,
or on the hood or roof, while the vehicle is in motion.)
Islamofascism
(a controversial term equating some modern Islamic movements with the
European fascist movements of the early twentieth century.)
pregaming
(the practice of consuming alcoholic beverages before attending a
sporting event or party, especially one where alcohol may be limited or
banned.)
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