Dictionary.com, which is filled with a countless amount of words, has picked its favorite one for the year.
The reference website has declared “bluster” as 2012’s Word of the Year, due to its dual definitions, according to the Huffington Post.
“We liked the the double meaning of weather and communication,” Jay Schwartz, the site’s head of content, told the Huffington Post. “Obviously the most historical events [this year] were the election, and weather events… [There has been] a remarkable volume of different kinds of bluster across the political and cultural spectrum.”
Pronounced bluh-ster, the word can be used as verb or a noun. “To roar and tumultuous, as wind,” is the verb-variant, as defined by Dictionary.com. When used as a noun, bluster means “boisterous noise and violence.”
Bluster was chosen based on user’s searches and in consultation with lexicographers—people who compile dictionaries. Schwartz said the word bluster surfaced as its pick when they noticed that people were curious for a word to describe the headline-making weather and the election cycle. A shortlist of other words that related to both events included inclement, intemperate, and tempestuous, but ultimately bluster won top praise.
We’re sticking Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year choice of “GIF.” Talk about something that created a bluster through the Internet.
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