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'Obamamania' grips English lexicon!
Barack Obama, who has been able to cement his front-runner status in the White House race, is influencing English users too as they are increasingly using variants of his name both in spoken and written form.
Barack Obama, who has been able to cement his front-runner status in the Democratic White House race, is influencing English users too as they are increasingly using variants of his name both in spoken and written form.
"Obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, obamanomics, obamican, obamafy, obamamania, and obamacam... and the list is growing," reported the Global Language Monitor (GLM), which analyses current trends in language.
"The latest word to enter the English language is 'Obama' in its many variations," GLM said.
For example, "Obamazon" is not some place nearby Amazon but used to indicate an ardent female supporter of Obama.
A hilarious video by CNN shows how Obama has managed to storm into the lexicon.
Anything that Obama says is "Baracklamation", means of communication for all his staffers is "Barackie Talkie" while the federal government under the black leader is dubbed "Barackracy".
"To enter the English language, a word has to meet certain criteria, including frequency of appearance in the written and spoken language, in the media, have a large geographic footprint, and to stand the test of time," said Paul JJ Payack, GLM president and chief word analyst.
"In the past, this process would unfold over many years, even decades or centuries. However the Internet, with instant global communication to billions of people, has radically accelerated the cycle," Payack said.
