New year, new word

Last year, my New Year’s resolution was to coin a new word. Not just any word. A word that would one day make it into the holy grail of lexicology -- the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

Well, 2006 has come and gone and so has my attempt to create a new word.

Lucky for me, the National Post has picked up the torch. The newspaper is asking its readers to vote for their favourite new words -- words that were taken directly from my blog! At least the Post is giving me credit for the idea:

In the wee hours just after 2005 had turned to 2006, blogger Sarah Marchildon excitedly discussed her New Year's resolution at a party. She would create a catchphrase that one day would be written into an episode of, you guessed it, Corner Gas.

“I wanted to create a word or saying so pithy it becomes part of the pop culture lexicon, like ‘off the hook’ or ‘crackberry,’” Marchildon says. “It's fun keeping the English language fresh and confusing.”

Marchildon posted the idea on her blog, The Hollywood North Report. It turned out her readers were passionate about the project. Most voted for or against specific words, but a surprising number had their own suggestions. It seems a lot of people love to create language.

Lucky for us, Marchildon moved from Vancouver to Japan before a winner could be crowned. From her hands we take the torch. It's a new year -- let's brand a new word.

Awesome. Check out the National Post’s list of words. They might look a little familiar since I posted most of these words on my blog last year (here and here).

Voting is open until Tuesday, Jan. 9.