TheAmerican Dialect Society, an association dedicated to the study of language in the United States,has chosen ” hashtag ” as word of the year 2012. The term refers to the common practice in the Twitter microblogging platform of tagging topics or making comments by incorporating the pound sign followed by a word or phrase into tweets. The word “hashtag“is formed by the union of the words in English that designate ‘pad’ (hash) and ‘label’ (tag).
In 2012, some of the most popular hashtags internationally were #syria, # obama2012, #nowplaying (for music that is playing) and #oomf (acronym for “one of my followers” in English). And in Spain, some referring to national issues such as #rescate and #LosientoMuchoNoVolveraAocurrir were also successful (the king’s apology phrase after his hunt in Bostuana that led to comments and jokes of all kinds).
According to Ben Zummer, chairman of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society,the hashtag has becomeon “a ubiquitous phenomenon of online conversations, which creates social trends instantly, helping to make viral messages on topics ranging from politics to pop culture. “
It should also be noted that the term voted by the experts as the most euphemistic has beenself-deportation (self-deportation), used when the police encourage illegal immigrants to voluntarily return to their countries of origin. As for the word considered with the least chances of success by the members of the association, it isphablet, which refers to an electronic device halfway between a smartphone (phone) and a tablet (tablet).
