App - the shortened slang term for a computer or smart phone application was picked by linguists as the word that best sums up the country's preoccupation last year.
"Nom" - a chat -, tweet-, and text-friendly syllable that connotes "yummy food" - was the runner-up.
It derives from the Cookie Monster character on Sesame Street or, more accurately, the sound he makes as he devours cookies: "Nom, nom, nom, nom".
The vote came at a Pittsburgh hotel ballroom during the national conference of the Linguistic Society of America, an umbrella group that includes the Dialect Society.
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