What do carbon-neutral and podcast have in common? Each was selected by the Oxford University Press as its Word of the Year; podcast in 2005 and carbon-neutral (a two-word phrase, really) last year.
Yesterday, the OUP announced the 2007 Word of the Year: Locavore.
From the OUPBlog press release:
“The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locavores also shun supermarket offerings as an environmentally friendly measure, since shipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation.
“The word ‘locavore’ shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment,” said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. “It’s significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way.”
The movement toward eating locally was around before four Bay-Area women coined the term locavore, but the play on carnivore/herbivore/omnivore captured the imagination, quickly becoming a part of what the clever folks at the Ethicurean call the dietgeist.
Oh, the 2004 word of the year? Blog.
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That is a word I need to investigate more fully in my local area. I think I am not a locavore by any stretched out definition