The American Dialect Society chooses the Word of the Year each January for the year previous.

But this year, 2010, they’ll also pick the Word of the Decade. Let’s consider the candidates! It’s remarkable to consider that these words, which we use every day, did not exist or existed with a different meaning, only ten years ago.

Drum roll, please! Here are the candidates for Word of the Decade (and my opinion of them):

9/11 Two words packed with immense meaning:  “The terrorist attacks on the United States, specifically in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington with horrendous suffering and loss of life, that occurred on September 11, 2001.”  I can’t vote for this one. Certainly the day itself will live in infamy but this isn’t a word that fit a need within our language.

blog A web log, being a web site that regularly—daily or weekly— posts new entries, usually by one author and on a particular topic. Blog is a noun and verb (I’m going to blog tonight to post on my blog tomorrow) as well as a prefix and suffix (blogosphere, milblog).  Definitely a contender on my ballot for word of the decade. It was nonexistent in the ‘90s because the product and action it described were nonexistent, yet now it’s a word—and a product—we encounter daily.

google A verb meaning “to search the Internet,” taken from the massive search engine Google, which is in fact a trademarked company name, and most companies don’t appreciate their name being used generically.  I think Google lets us get away with it because when we say “google” we do usually do mean Google (whereas, when we say Klennex, we mean whatever brand of tissue we bought last week). The company’s name derived from the word googol ( the number 1 followed by one hundred zeros) and that does seem to be as many hits as you can get on some searches.

green Having to do with ecological or environmental conservation or protection. You can’t escape green: Green products, green politics, green economics—all of which have lead to greenwashing: pretending that a product, service or attitude is appropriately green. (And dullgreen, a word I just made up to mean the annoyance one feels being constantly pelted with green, green, green. But I’m not bitter.) I understand why green is a top contender for word of the decade: Nowadays when you hear green, you think environment, not living room paint.  However, I don’t think this definition will last. The need to be green—and the need to be perceived as green—is do firmly held in the marketplace that within a few more years it will be superfluous to tout oneself for considering one’s impact on health of consumers and their environment.

text A text message received by mobile phone, or, as a verb, to send a text message. I got a text from Diego. Then I texted Martha. Why the word message can’t be used instead is a mystery to me. And I’m not a fan of turning nouns into verbs. The entry does not get my vote because it is not innovative; it’s sloppy.

war on terror The country’s effort to prevent global (and thus domestic) terror and terrorists.  It’s true we did not talk about war on terror before this century, and it’s troubling that now we have to, but  I’m not inclined to choose as Word of the Decade a phrase coined and promulgated by politicians so they can pretend something is happening.

So my finalist are, in order: Blog, Google and Green.  What’s your choice?

Stay tuned because next we’ll consider the Words of the Year.