2002可以说是名副其实的“反恐年”。反恐不仅是国际政治的主题，也使普通人的生活或多或少地受到了不同程度的影响。从2002年美国选出的流行词汇中不难感受这段时世的纷乱与艰难。

　　A long-winded phrase whose meaning reflects a nation's worry about war with Iraq has been voted 2002's word of the year.<注1>

　　The American Dialect Society selected "weapons of mass destruction" as its annual choice at a meeting in Atlanta on Jan 3, 2003.2 "The term goes back 50 years, but you can't turn on the radio or television without hearing about 'weapons of mass destruction,'"<注3> said Wayne Glowka, an English professor at Georgia College & State University who is also chairman of the society's new words committee.

　　Most of the words nominated by members of the society reflected the looming threat of war with Iraq or the suffering economy,<注4> Glowka said. "All these words ?Iraqnaphobia, regime change<注5>, weapons of mass destruction ?they all have to do with worry about war with Iraq. So it hasn't been a very good year," he said. "Not as bad as last year, but certainly not an 'up' year."<注6>

　　The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, has been choosing words of the year since 1990.<注7> "There is no scientific method of determining which words or phrases will be named words-of-the-year," said Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the group. "It's kind of like Time magazine determining the whistle-blowers were the person-of-the-year. There is no objective way of determining it. It's all done with a show of hands."<注8>

　　The phrase "regime change" was voted most euphemistic, not so much for its connotations to Iraq, but because people started using it to describe other changes of leadership.<注9> "Like when a team fires a coach, they call it 'regime change,'" Glowka said.

　　There was only one nomination for 2002's most inspirational word: "embetterment," coined by President Bush.<注10> But even though it was the only candidate in that category, it was voted down because "people didn't want to encourage it," Glowka said.

　　Other words won superlatives<注11> from the American Dialect Society:

　　Wombanization, a synonym for feminization, won most unnecessary because it's hard to pronounce.<注12>

　　Neuticles, a brand name for fake testicles for neutered pets, was named the most outrageous word.<注13>

　　Blog, a log of personal events posted on the Web, was voted most likely to succeed.<注14>

　　Iraqnaphobia, meaning a strong fear of war with Iraq, won most creative.

　　Most useful: Google, the verb (to plug a termsintosthe Google search engine)<注15>.

　　Words of the Year 2001

　　2001年流行词汇

　　1. Most Outrageous最恶心奖

　　assoline (屁油)，methane used as a fuel指用作燃油的甲烷。

　　2. Most Euphemistic最委婉奖

　　daisy cutter (滚地球)，bomb used by US Air Force美国空军使用的一种燃料气化炸弹。

　　3. Most Likely to Succeed最有可能沿用奖

　　9-11，terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001。

　　5. Most Creative最佳创意奖

　　shuicide bomber (人鞋炸弹)，terrorist with bomb in shoes指在鞋子中藏有炸弹进行自杀性攻击的人，是suicide bomber与shoe的结合。suicide bomber指用炸弹进行自杀性攻击的人，即“人体炸弹”。

　　7. Least Likely to Succeed最不可能沿用奖

　　Osamaniac(女拉登迷)，woman sexually attracted to Osama bin Laden用来描述9-11恐怖袭击后那些疯狂迷恋本-拉登的女子。

　　Word of the Year

　　Sept.11 (and its equivalents), Sept.11(及其同义词)成为年度词汇。