The Best Word in the World (but possibly not you be the judge)

I found out today that the Color of the Year is PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald (oops, should I have prefaced that with a SPOILER ALERT?) It is a great year for Emerald apparently. Who knew that 2012 was destined to be so ‘lively, radiant, lush green’? But there you go.

But it did make me wonder ... if a colour gets an annual award, what about a word of the year? I mean really, they ordain songs of the year, films of the year, men of the year and frankly, if they give an award to the stupidist way to die of the year, I am very certain words warrant their own category of recognition.

But what would it be? So many words to choose from. Could it be barracking? Slam-dunk? Hobbit? Peplum? What about Rinehart? Or Mayan?  Bowchickabowwow maybe?

We could probably rule out Armstrong. And Hispanic. It's not Bon Temps. Not Australympians. Nor ClickFrenzy neither. 

To be honest I’m kind of stumped, and way too tired tired, cranky (and way too distracted by my recently developed annoyance at people who mess with Christmas schedules and budgets by having children at this time of year that require presents, parties and attention)  to figure it out myself.

But fear not. Through some highly advanced (Google) research I have found a more convincing answer to this perplexing-bordering-on boring-quest. Thankfully, there’s someone more interested in word recognition and reward than me. His name is Ted McCagg*. And he’s gone one better. Ted has spent a great deal of effort, time and biro ink on calculating the Best Word in the World. Ever. You can read through his selection and elimination process here.

So without further ado, I bring to you the Best Word Ever

Diphthong

I know. Diphthong. Wasn’t even worth the wait, was it? I didn’t even know what it meant until I looked it up (def: also known as a gliding vowel, referring to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable.) Huh?

All the chewy, juicy words in the world and that was it. Personally, I’ve got a preference for eke, and quagmire, and akimbo for that matter.

But then, who am I to argue. The guy went to explicit lengths and algorithms and even some truly underwhelming diagrams to find the title taker. I for one, kowtow (sadly, also not a finalist) to his commitment. Word.

*(AKA Someone With Entirely Too Much Time On His Hands).