Words of the year

The Oxford English Dictionary has chosen its word of the year: Squeezed Middle. Last year’s word of the year was big society, and the word of 2009 was unfriend.

Those who spend time on Twitter might have guessed that OWS, occupy or 99% would have come out on top this year. They didn’t come out on top, but they did make the shortlist, alongside some notable tech buzzwords. Gamification, clicktivism and crowdfunding made the U.S. shortlist, while hacktivism, sodcasting (playing music on your phone’s speaker in a public place) and — not surprisingly — phone hacking made the UK list.

Here’s the full U.S. shortlist for 2011′s word of the year:

• Arab Spring


• Bunga bunga


• Clicktivism


• Crowdfunding


• Fracking


• Gamification


• Occupy


• The 99%


• Tiger mother


• Sifi