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It's difficult to choose a Word of the Year in the year that you're in. It's one of those things that hindsight makes more apparent. It's like looking at pictures from 10 years ago, and you notice the flannel and the ripped jeans. At the time, it didn't look to you like a real fashion trend.
— Erin McKean
Tags: look, fashion, time, you

Other Quotes by "Erin McKean"

We've been using 'rejuvenate,' meaning to restore youth, to make young again, as a verb for at least 200 years.
— Erin McKean
Tags: make, young, meaning, youth
Almost any word can be drafted to serve as a verb, even words we think of as eternal and unchanging, stuck in their more traditional roles.
— Erin McKean
Tags: serve, more, think, words
All language is a popularity contest.
— Erin McKean
Tags: contest, popularity, language
The use of food metaphors is really well established English... Somebody is a peach, a hot tamale.
— Erin McKean
Tags: use, well, hot, food
Objections to verbification in English tend to be motivated by personal taste, not clarity. Verbed words are usually easily understood. When a word like 'friend' is declared not a verb, the problem isn't that it's confusing; it's that the protester finds it deeply annoying.
— Erin McKean
Tags: problem, like, friend, words
View More by "Erin McKean"
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