Millionth English Word Declared

While the stuffier stewards of the English language refuse to sully the dictionary with the lowbrow lexicon of the digital age, one Internet-monitoring firm has declared the millionth English word to be … (drum-roll machine, please) … "Web 2.0."

That's right, Web 2.0 has reared its alphanumeric self in cyberspace enough times (25,000, to be exact) for Texas-based Global Language Monitor (GLM) to recognize it as an officially coined term. GLM determining Web 2.0 to be the millionth word, however, sounds a little arbitrary. The term, used to describe the more-interactive iteration of Web technologies embraced by social networking sites and others leveraging user-generated content, beat out recently popularized terms "N00b," "Jai ho" and "slumdog."

N00b (yes, the zeros are intentional) is geek-speak for tender-foot, or newbie, gamers, while both Jai ho and slumdog were popularized by the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. GLM, apparently with a straight face, also points out that N00b is the only mainstream English word to include within itself two numerals.

Predictably, the humorless vanguard of the English language is hardly amused. But it is a little surprising that many of them actually acknowledged GLM's declaration. In response to Web 2.0's christening of sorts, lexicographers publicly doubted GLM's claim and dryly pointed out that dictionaries have much stricter criteria, according to an article by BBC News.

Whatever, nerds. But when the language is finally reduced to text message jargon such as CUL8R and LOL — beyond its mobile phone context — then we'll know we're really in trouble.