Goodbye to the noughties

9/11; 24/7; bling; blog; credit crunch; chav; Facebooking; fair-trade; footprint; i-; lol; meh; Obamamania; pandemic; Slumdog; sustainability; truthiness; tweet; WAG; war on terror.

I realise that, out of context, this probably sounds like the random ramblings of a very over-worked editor, but there is method to my madness. The Magazine section of the BBC news website recently asked its readers to tell the story of the past ten years, based on five themes: words, people, news, objects and culture. And the 20 words listed above are those that the panel of judges decided best summed up the decade.

I don’t normally go in for this type of thing, but as I skimmed through the list there wasn’t a single choice that I didn’t agree with. I think that lexicographer Susie Dent hit the nail on the head in her summing-up of the category on the website: “Bling and WAG neatly convey our love/hate relationship with the celebrities who have dominated both the real world and the virtual one. And the importance of the latter in the Noughties was huge, as the choices of i, blog and tweet testify.”1

It will be interesting to see what the public comes up with in the next ten years and how many of these terms will stay the distance – or whether tweeting and Facebooking will be seen as remarkably old-fashioned in a decade's time.

As always, if you have a story that you would like to share with your peers do get in touch at kclifton@waterlow.com.

I hope that you enjoy reading this issue of the magazine – and that you have a very enjoyable and restful holiday season. See you in 2010!

Reference
1. ‘A portrait of the decade’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8406898.stm

Kate Clifton
Managing editor

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