New Category Election-Related Words: maverick, a person who is beholden to no one. Widely used by the Republican Presidential and Vice- Presidential candidates, John McCain and Sarah Palin. Also in the adjectival form mavericky, used by Tina Fey portraying Palin on Saturday Night Live。

　　2007Word of the Year：subprime, an adjective used to describe a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage, or investment。

　　Most Useful:green- prefix/compounding form, designates environmental concern, as in greenwashing。

　　Most Creative: googleg nger, a person with your name who shows up when you google yourself。

　　Most Unnecesssary:Happy Kwanhanamas! [Kwanza + Hanukka + Christmas] Happy holidays!

　　Most Outrageous:toe tapper, A homosexual. Senator Larry Craig was arrested in June for an encounter in a public restroom in which toe-tapping was said to have been used as a sexual comeon。

　　Most Euphemistic: human terrain team, a group of social scientists employed by the US military to serve as cultural advisers in Iraq or Afghanistan。

　　Most Likely to Succeeed: green- prefix/compounding form, designates environmental concern, as in greenwashing。

　　Least Likely to Succeed: strand-in, protest duplicating being stranded inside an airplane on a delayed flight。

　　New Category, Real Estate Words:subprime, used to describe a risky or poorly documented loan or mortgage。

　　2006Word of the Year,to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued。

　　Most Useful: climate canary, an organism or species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon。

　　Most Creative: lactard, a person who is lactose-intolerant。

　　Most Unnecessary:SuriKat, the supposed nickname of the baby girl of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes。

　　Most Outrageous: Cambodian accessory, Angelina Jolie’s adopted child who is Cambodian。

　　Most Euphemistic: waterboardingterrorist fist jab, an interrogation technique in which the subject is immobilized and doused with water to simulate drowning; reported to be used by U.S. interrogators against terrorism detainees。

　　Most Likely to Succeed: YouTube as a verb, to use the YouTube web site or to have a video of one’s self be posted on the site。

　　Least Likely to Succeed:grup, a Gen-Xer who does not act his or her age。

　　New Category, Pluto- Related Words:to be plutoed, to pluto, to be demoted or devalued。

　　2005Word of the Year

　　truthiness, what one wishes to be the truth regardless of the facts. (From the Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, a mock news show on Comedy Central。)

　　Most Useful:podcast, audio or video file for downloading. Most Creative: whale-tail, the appearance of thong or g-string underwaear above the waistband。

　　Most Unnecessary:K Fed, Kevin Federline, Mr. Britney Spears。

　　Most Outrageous:crotchfruit, a child or children。

　　Most Euphemistic:internal nutrition force-feeding a prisoner。

　　Most Likely to Succeed: sudokunumber puzzle from Japan。

　　Least Likely to Succeed:popesquatting registering a likely domain name of a new pope before the pope chooses his new name in order to profit from it。

　　Special nonce category, Best Tom Cruise-Related Word:jump the couch, to exhibit frenetic behavior like Cruise’s couch-bouncing on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show。

　　2004Word of the Year:red/blue/purple states, red favoring conservative Republicans and blue favoring liberal Democrats, as well as the undecided purple states in the political map of the United States。

　　Most Useful:phish, to induce someone to reveal private information by means of deceptive email。

　　Most Creative:pajamahadeen, bloggers who challenge and fact-check traditional media。

　　Most Unnecessary: stalkette, a female stalker。

　　Most Outrageous:santorum, byproduct of anal sex, using the name of a senator opposed to the practice。

　　Most Euphemistic: badly sourced, false。

　　Most Likely to Succeed:red/blue/purple states。

　　Least Likely to Succeed:FLOHPA, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, important states in the 2004 presidential election。