'Distracted Driving' is Webster's 2009 Word Of The Year

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The term distracted driving is the winner in this year's Word of the Year contest held by Webster's New World College Dictionary. Every year, a trendy word that reflects world's new technological realities is chosen by Webster's team of editors, but has no guarantee of actually making it into the dictionary. This year, the runners-up included terms like cloud computing and wallet biopsy.

Webster's Dictionary defines distracted driving as "what many are guilty of when they use digital devices on the go. It says the term is rapidly entering law books around the world. Webster calls distracted driving a "sign of the times" and a consequence of our "our ongoing romance with all things digital and mobile..." Webster makes a point that distracted driving is actually a crime in many jurisdictions around the world. Interestingly, CrackBerry, a mocking term for 'addictive' effects of BlackBerry was Webster's Word of the Year way back in 2006.

While one of the major contenders -- the term cloud computing has a lot of digital relevance and signifies computer operations in which documents and data are created, edited, and stored remotely on servers and accessed by the user via an Internet connection, the other contender -- wallet biopsy applies in health care and means investigating the patient's ability to pay for the medical services to be provided. The term has a lot of relevance in light of President's Obama push for the health care reform in the United States.

The Word of the Year in 2008 was overshare, which is a verb implying "divulging excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval."

What is your guess on what the Word of the Year will be in 2010?

NowPublic's Staff nominations for the Word of the Year in 2010 are:

1. Creative financing

2. Tweep

3. Googleverse