‘Pragmatic’ named 2011 Word of the Year

English majors, take note: Merriam-Webster has chosen pragmatic as its top word of 2011.

On Dec. 15, the American dictionary publisher announced its annual top-10 list, determined by the volume of searches on their online dictionary. Pragmatic, an adjective that means “practical as opposed to idealistic,” received an “unprecedented” number of searches throughout the year.

Merriam-Webster says search trends are often influenced by economic and political conditions. In 2011, the words ambivalence, insidious, didactic, austerity, diversity, socialism, vitriol and “après moi le déluge” topped the list—influenced in some part, no doubt, by the Occupy Wall Street movement.

What do you think, Canadian wordsmiths? Should pragmatic be the top word of 2011?