Word of year history

I thought the history of the words of the year as described by wikipedia was very good to know.

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year, a list published annually by the American dictionary-publishing company Merriam-Webster, features the ten words of the year from the English language. This list started in 2003, and is published at the end of each year. At first, Merriam-Webster determined its contents by analyzing page hits and popular searches on its website. Since 2006 the list has been determined by an online poll and by suggestions from visitors to the site.

As of 2008, only two of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year were already dictionary entries at the time they earned their status (democracy in 2003 and integrity in 2005). 2004's Top Word, blog, was added later. The words for 2006 and 2007, truthiness and w00t, respectively, have not made it to the traditional Merriam-Webster printed dictionary as of 2008.

The Words of the Year usually reflect events that happened during the years the lists were published. For example, the Word of the Year for 2005, integrity, showed that the general public had an immense interest in defining this word amid ethics scandals in the American government, corporations, and sports.

The Word of the Year for 2004, blog, was looked up on the Online Dictionary the most as blogs began to influence mainstream media.

In 2006, Merriam-Webster received a lot of publicity as truthiness, a word coined by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, topped the list.