To "pluto" is "to demote or
devalue someone or something," much
like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of
the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto didn't meet its definition of
a planet.
"Our members believe the great emotional reaction of the public to the
demotion of Pluto shows the importance of Pluto as a name," said society
president Cleveland Evans. "We may no longer believe in the Roman god Pluto, but
we still have a sense of personal connection with the former planet."
"Plutoed" won in a runoff against
"climate canary," defined as "an organism or species whose poor health or
declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon."
Other words considered: murse (man's purse), flog (a fake blog that promotes
products) and macaca (an American citizen treated as an alien).
Republican former Sen. George Allen was ahead in his re-election campaign
when he said "macaca," which some regard as a racial
slur, and "welcome to America" in referring to a US-born man of
Indian descent who was volunteering for Allen's opponent. Allen lost to Democrat
Jim Webb.
The 117-year-old American Dialect Society comprises linguists, grammarians,
historians and independent scholars, among others. Members conduct the vote for
fun and not in an official capacity to induct words into the English language.
The society chose "truthiness" as its top word last year. The word is
credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth
that comes from the gut, not books."
Last month, an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster declared
"truthiness" the word of the year for 2006.
