That’s so 2000 and late: hit and miss words from the last decade

So the decade-with-no-name has ended, and just like any other year, a host of new words and phrases were coined. Some of these new words make it into the dictionary, others stay on the street, but most simply fade into obscurity. Here’s a recap of some of the words and phrases that did make it – and a few that didn’t.

Millennium mayhem
On New Year’s Eve 1999, the Y2K, or millennium bug, was hard at work bringing down computer software. Techies everywhere preached “Party over, people! Sign up for our protection program, or you’re out of time!” And then suddenly, on the stroke of midnight… nothing happened. Some experts claim it was the USD 300 billion spent on preemptive measures that saved the day, while others maintain that Y2K was the hoax of the 90s.

Dead currencies
Feelings ran high when the Euro replaced twelve EU currencies on 1 January 2002. But can you remember which country had which currency? Try and match the schilling, franc, markka, drachma, lira, punt, guilder, escudo and peseta to Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. And if none of the currencies sound familiar, you’re probably under 20.

Surf’s up
Technology has not only changed the way we communicate, but also the way we talk. We no longer ‘surf the net’, the ‘information super highway’ or the ‘World Wide Web’. We’re either browsing, googling, IM’ing, blogging, tweeting or unfriending a frenemy on Facebook. And just to keep you up with the play, the New Oxford American Dictionary chose ‘unfriend’ as their 2009 word of the year.

Welcome to the Twitterverse
If that was all a little too retro, then the Texas-based Global Language Monitor recently crowned twitter the most used word in 2009. How long that one remains in use is anyone’s guess. Care to place a bet?

Alternative swimwear
A new entrant into the Collins Dictionary in 2009, the mankini made a splash in the film Borat, staring Sacha Baron Cohen. A type of male sling bikini pulled up over the shoulders, we think it looks too painful to wear for it to really catch on – although its devotees claim that’s what makes it so attractive; no pain, no gain.

You see dead people too?
Possibly a little insensitive, deleb made it into the 2009 edition of the New Oxford Dictionary. A dead celebrity used to endorse products, a deleb continues to earn good revenue after death, and they’re guaranteed not to harm your brand's image with new scandals. Popular delebs include Elvis, Yves St Laurent, Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Cash. Oh, and maybe Michael Jackson qualifies as the deleb to look out for in 2010?