Kate, Cern, Olympics will be dominating words of 2012

Multiple end-of-world scenarios, Kate, China, Cern, the Olympics and the US elections will dominate word creation and usage in 2012, a group tracking word trends has said. According to Global Language Monitor, Kate will be top word this year.

Multiple end-of-world scenarios, Kate, China, Cern, the Olympics and the US elections will dominate word creation and usage in 2012, a group tracking word trends has said. According to Global Language Monitor, Kate will be top word this year.

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"There are seven billion humans on the planet but sometimes it seems that

it's all about Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, in terms of fashion, celebrity, and the royal line," the GLM said.

"The year 2012 looks to be a vibrant year for the English language, with word creation again driven by events both scheduled and unanticipated. Typically there is an end-of-the-world scenario every few years that impacts the English language. This year we will see no fewer than three," said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of GLM.

So, Kate will compete with the London Olympics, the economic surge of China, activities involving the Cern atom-smasher, and the US presidential election for Top Word honours.

"... though we always allow for word creation generated from unexpected events such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the Japanese 'triple disaster' of 2011," Payack said. The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which numbers more than 1.83 billion speakers.