Word of the year "Hypermiling"
 

New Oxford American dictionary crowned "Hypermiling" as its word of the year for 2008. Here's a link.

Word of the year: Hypermiling - Nov. 11, 2008

I think HR would be upset if i tried to use one of the runner-up words..

Staff Meeting Notice - Todays Staff meeting will be Topless.

: )

Well deserved recognition for a new word that probably appeared in every major media outlet at some point this summer. Not so sure you can say the same thing about the other "finalists".

A thought: it would be interesting to see a list of past words of the year to see which ones had staying power and which ones were just words for passing fads.

Here's the official definition. I don't really like the extremism notes in the definition, but that was to be expected as the word is starting with hyper. I would have concealed the word to driving techniques, but that's just me.

“Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

I think that's the least extreme definition of hypermiling I've seen in print (on a side note...when I type "hypermiling" the spell check still puts a little squiggly red line below it for spelling suggestions...guess it has one last hurdle until it's mainstream..."squiggly" doesn't have the spell check little red line though...odd).

The part I find most interesting is that the Oxford definition also mentions, ahem, "adjusting" the car. :)

Their blog entry announcing the new word asks:

Anyone who knows Wayne will be surprised to see an aeromod associated with the word. He has long held the view that mods are of secondary importance. But isn't roof rack removal a mod?

(Answer: "it depends...")

In Wayne's less measured days, he even went so far as to publicly (online) lambaste a well known EM member who pioneered DIY aero improvements, because technique is the One True Path. (I paraphrase!)

OK, now I'm just making sour grapes noises. Truthfully: Wayne & the CMPG crowd unquestionably deserve kudos for their work.

Hiya,

I wish they included a few synonyms; like "ecodriving".

I think that even here we use the words hypermiling and ecodriving (and others) differently. hypermiling requires that you have no care for the flow of traffic and the opinions of the people around you (ie, the 90y/o granny honking behind you) to absolutely maximize your mileage, whereas ecodriving is just a moderate change in driving habbits to exclude blatent waste.

They mention that specifically on their blog page: Oxford Word of the Year 2008: Hypermiling : OUPblog

Is grille-blocking "hyperventilating"?