Move over, past winners "metrosexual," "chad" and "information superhighway." There's a new American Dialect Society (www.americandialect.org) Word of the Year, and that word is: Scobee.

No, wait, that was the name of the Jacksonville Jaguars kicker whose field goal ended the Steelers' season. Actually, the No. 1 Super Duper Word chosen in an ADS vote Friday (the awards weren't telecast, unfortunately, in deference to the Hollywood writers' strike) is: "subprime." It's the word or phrase deemed most newly prominent in the past year.

I know -- you're not thrilled. It's overly stuffy and hard to understand, rather like an actuary. You were rooting for "waterboarding," if you're into torture. And there was undoubtedly a vocal Pittsburgh delegation lobbying hard for "contra-flow" (in honor of the Fifth Avenue bus lane through Oakland, as opposed to 1980s Latin American arms shipments).

Besides, subprime doesn't make any sense, as a word that combines something low with something superlative. It ends up sounding totally neutral and average. It's a lousy oxymoron. (Now there's a word worth a prize and regular usage, as in, "Hey, did you see Cyril Wecht accuse his prosecutor of being vindictive? What an oxymoron!")

The dialect society's selection completes the word awards season, which, as you know, is mired in every bit as much controversy as college football's subjective Bowl Championship Series.

Webster New World picked "grass station," alluding to a future place where you pump your hybrid car with vegetable-based fuel.

The New Oxford American Dictionary chose "locavore," although few of the people who try to consume only locally produced food are aware that's what they should call themselves.

And Merriam-Webster selected "w00t," spelled with two zeroes, which is used by computer game players to express unabashed joy. (Quit scoffing -- what do you expect from them, a dance with their hard drives held over their heads? It's just not practical, so let them w00t -- it's the only fun they have in lives that are a tad, well, pathetic.)

These dictionary rivals all must despise one another and desire a year-end playoff to settle things.

It would make sense (imagine the ratings!) but good luck getting the ADS dialecters (dialecticians?) to go along. After 18 years of doing this, their press release touting "subprime" boasted, "The vote is the longest-running such vote anywhere, the only one not tied to commercial interests, and the word-of-the-year event up to which all others lead."

So, yeah, the ADS will be all for a level Word of the Year playing field. Not! ("Not!" was the society's 1992 WOTY, and we say that with more sincerity than "truthiness," which was the 2005 WOTY.)

The folks at Lake Superior State University (it's a cool place, holding a ceremonial snowman burning every March to declare winter's end) approach the year's vocabulary from the opposite direction.

At www.lssu.edu/banished, they provide an annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. So unlike the other competitions, this is one that a word or phrase is ashamed to end up on.

The 2008 list that came out last week included bans on future use of "perfect storm," "wordsmith," "surge" and "back in the day," along with 15 others worth throwing under the bus (and yes, we used "under the bus" because it was on the list also).

Of course, LSSU's record for successfully erasing out-of-control usages is less than stellar. Previous lists included "erectile dysfunction" and "weapons of mass destruction," though we all know both are still ubiquitous (if well-hidden).

For the record, here are some of the other new American Dialect Society category winners:

Most Useful: "green-" for something indicating environmental concern.

Most Creative: "Googleganger," to denote a different person who shows up with the same name as yours when you Google yourself (not as painful as it sounds).

Most Unnecessary: "Happy Kwanhanamas," for those who want an all-inclusive expression wishing happy holidays.

Most Outrageous: "toe tapper," as a synonym for homosexual, related to Sen. Larry Craig's arrest for a public restroom encounter.