France Takes on Twitter, Bans the Word 'Hashtag' Not content to slap a 'Le' in front of the latest bit of English tech jargon, France's language police are insisting that the government replace the ...

The Word of the Year is one that is rarely spoken. The word “hashtag” — the act of using a pound sign (#) followed by a word or phrase to tag a message on Twitter — was dubbed “Word of the Year 2012” ...

Every year, the American Dialect Society nominates and then votes on a word of the year, and for 2012 it's "hashtag." It beat out other nominated words like "YOLO," "Fiscal cliff," and "Gangnam style.