Word of the Year

The Word of the Year is 'bailout’, as voted this week by the American Dialect Society at their conference in San Francisco.
Delegates, including staff from Cambridge University Press’s Academic and Professional Group, were asked to nominate new or newly significant words to have emerged over the previous 12 months. The overall winner was the word bailout, in the specific sense it acquired in 2008 to refer to the rescue by the government of companies, especially banks, on the brink of failure.
Founded in 1889, the society is dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and its conference attracts academics and amateur wordsmiths from all over the globe.
News of the result was picked up by local and national media, including CBS News. Category award winners were as follows:

Most unnecessary: moofing: i.e., "mobile out of office", working with laptop and cell phone.
Most creative: recombobulation area: at Milwaukee's Mitchell Airport where passengers who "have just passed through security screening can get their clothes and belongings back in order."
Most outrageous: terrorist fist jab: a knuckle-to-knuckle fist bump, or "dap", traditionally performed between two black people as a sign of friendship, celebration or agreement and described as "the terrorist fist jab" by newscaster E. D. Hill, formerly of Fox News.
Most likely to succeed: shovel-ready: an infrastructure projects that can be started quickly when funds become available.
Other nominees worthy of a mention:
lipstick on a pig: An adornment of something that can't be made pretty.
game-changer: In business and politics, something that alters the nature of a marketplace, relationship, or campaign. From sports. "something that changes a match or contest."
Palinesque: Pertaining to persons who have extended themselves beyond their expertise, thereby bringing ridicule upon a serious matter.
long photo: A video of 90 seconds or less. Used by the photo-sharing web site Flickr.
First Dude: The husband of a governor or president.
Bromance: A very close relationship between two heterosexual men.