'Hashtag' named word of the year Word chosen by American Dialect Society for 2012
"Hashtag" has been named the word of the year by the American Dialect Society for 2012.
The word has been around for decades, but the society decided that it wasn't until 2012 that word really made its way into everyday conversation.
Hashtags first became popular on Twitter and quickly spread to Facebook and other social media platforms.
On Twitter, hashtags are used to group tweets and create instant trends and global conversations online.
A major push to make it word of the year came when Newsweek magazine printed its final issue with just three words on the cover: "#FinalPrintIssue."
Other contenders for word of the year included "YOLO," the acronym for "you only live once," and "Gangnam Style," in reference to the hit Youtube song.
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