ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701060124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: Associated Press
IT'S THE NAME FOR those suburban mothers whose power as a voting bloc got some recognition last year.
Politicians and pollsters liked it, and now the term ``soccer mom'' has the blessing of linguists, even though it's a jokey acceptance.
``Soccer mom'' was voted Word of the Year for 1996 by the American Dialect Society. It beat out ``alpha geek'' in Friday's balloting at the group's annual meeting here.
``You'd have to ask Bill Clinton or Bob Dole why it is so important,'' said Allan Metcalf, the society's recording secretary and an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill. ``We are merely recognizing its importance.''
``Soccer mom'' was a political buzz-term during the presidential campaign, referring to the demographic group of suburban women seen as a key voting bloc.
``Alpha geek'' refers to the person in any office who's known as a solver of computer problems.
The society has been choosing a word of the year since 1990. The idea is to recognize that new words and phrases are always creeping into the language, Metcalf said.
The group tries not to take itself too seriously, he said.
This year's choice as most useful new word was ``dot,'' as in ``dot-com,'' from the language of Internet addresses for e-mail and the World Wide Web.
Some other selections:
* Most Unnecessary: ``Mexican hustle,'' describing the Macarena.
* Most Controversial: ``Ebonics,'' referring to black street vernacular and based on a combination of the words ebony and phonics.
* Most Outrageous: ``toy soldier,'' describing land mines in the former Yugoslavia.
* Most Original: ``prebuttal,'' describing a political candidate's pre-emptive rebuttal of an opponent's statement.
* Most Euphemistic: tie between ``urban camping,'' which refers to living homeless in a city, and ``food insecure,'' for a nation where there is much starvation.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines KEYWORDS: YEAR 1996by CNB