Audacity of 'austerity,' 2010 Word of the Year
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101220/ap_on_re_us/us_word_of_the_year
'Austerity" is defined in the New Oxford American Dictionary as, "difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce a budget deficit, esp. by reducing public expenditure." This easily relates to 2010, in which many countries, like Greece and the United States, each went through a financial crisis. Unemployment increased worldwide and economies suffered. John Morse, president and publisher of a Springfield, Massachusetts dictionary, said that 'austerity' hit over 250,000 searches on its online website this year, making the word extremely popular. Another reason for this word's popularity is because Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor-at-large, said that the top ten words this year were all related to a news story.
I am not surprised that 'austerity' was the top word of 2010. Although I had never heard of the word before coming across this article, its definition is very appropriate to describe the various economic crises that have occurred around the world this year.
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