The Year in Buzzwords

"Politics without buzzwords is like sports without clichés, math without numbers, or Blago without bleeps," begins a piece in today's New York Times. "Tough to imagine, in other words, especially in such a game-changer of a campaign year in which buzzwords were flying like shoes." So what words make this year's list? "Change," of course, as well as "Maverick," "Hockey Mom," and "Terrorist Fist Jab." Nonpolitical entries include "Fail" ("Largely used online, this is a verb turned into a mass noun, as in "A bucket of fail"), "Staycation," "Phelpsian" ("Excellent in the fashion of the swimmer Michael Phelps"), and "Sister Wife" ("a woman who shares a husband with another woman"). While it's fun to see all the words in place, let us hope that some of them—we have our eyes on "Joe" (as in Joe Six-pack and Joe the Plumber)—don't make it to 2009.