"Podcast" - both portmanteau (combining "iPod" and "broadcasting") and misnomer (neither iPod nor broadcasting is necessary) - was selected as the Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, cleverly writes writes Chris Noon of Forbes.com. A post by Michelle Meyers on CNET's Blogma (itself a portmanteau) points out that the Oxford Dictionary of English added "podcast" last summer.

The term, to be added to the online version of the dictionary, is defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player."

Words that did not make it, at least this year, include "bird flu," "sudoku" and "trans fat."