He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice … And Santa’s not the only one doing it. List-making has become the world’s favorite past-time — especially as the year draws to a close — and Glossophilia isn’t going to miss out on the fun. Here’s a compilation of 24 of the year’s best word lists, each with a couple of notable examples/entrants to make you click. Thanks to the kings of lists, Buzzfeed and mentalfloss, for supplying most of them. Enjoy!
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Top 8 (real) misspellings from 2013
Prozaic, impeckable
‘Tis and 10 other fun proclitic words
‘Twas, ’twill, th’art …
12 old words that survived by getting fossilized in idioms
kith, umbrage
A wordnado of words in 2013 (from the New York Times)
Bae, cronut
The 10 most 2013 words
sequestration, surveillance
6 grammar points to watch out for in Christmas songs
“You better watch out, you better not cry …”
The Independent’s 2013’s words of the year
cybernat, fracker
11 wonderful winter weather terms
Hoarfrost, albedo
Merriam-Webster’s Year in Words, 2013
knaidel, indemnify
15 fun phrases that were popularized during Prohibition
Jake walk, teetolater, and hooch
9 words that genuinely might be added to the Oxford English Dictionary
legsie, dosant
What we liked in 2013: words (from The Guardian)
listicle
10 Latin phrases people pretend to understand
Habeus corpus, quid pro quo
The words that popped in 2013 (from the Wall Street Journal)
subtweet, doge
15 delightful flapper-era words for ‘awesome’
The fly’s thighs, the sardine’s whiskers, the clam’s cuticle
12 words and phrases that were popularized in the funny pages
wimpy, worrywort
15 words etymologically inspired by animals
tyke, hobby and hackneyed
11 word of the year candidates everyone forgot immediately
deleb, blamestorm
The last words of 17 historical figures
“That’s very obvious.”
26 of Noah Webster’s spelling changes that didn’t catch on
soop for soup, tung for tongue
11 sexting acronyms from the 1930s
EGYPT, ENGLAND and VENICE
15 wonderful words for delightful experiences
suaviloquence, petrichor
15 more excellent Victorian slang words you should be using
nurse the hoe-handle, raked fore and aft
11 words for people who hate certain things
misopogonist, misapodysist
12 of the highest-scoring Scrabble words
cazique, jukebox