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The staff at John Wiley & Sons Webster's New World College Dictionary hold a Word-of-the-Year contest to determine the term or phrase that best portrays the times we live in and the ever changing nature of the English language.

For 2006, the lexicographers and researchers for the dictionary picked a word that not only defines the addictive nature of not just Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry handhelds, but all smartphones, cell phones and PDAs that have come to integrate QWERTY thumb-keyboards and enable users to stay connected wherever they are, at all times.

That word is … CrackBerry.

Sure, readers of this Web site know the term isn't new at all. In fact, it was coined by some of the earliest BlackBerry adopters on Wall Street; possibly as far back as 2000, only the year after RIM starting shipping the first model. But no one can deny that usuage of CrackBerry has become mainstream.

The etymological source of the nickname is the highly-addictive rock cocaine, called crack, for the first part of the word, combined with the berry from BlackBerry.

New World College Dictionary staff said they like the way Crackberry denotes both the device itself and the users. They even have a phrase for the common sight of people hunched over a device when thumbing away: Crackberry prayer, which refers to how devout-looking folks seem.

To determine the Word-of-the-year, the compilers of the New World College Dictionary "survey the new, emerging language of the past year," according to Editor in Chief Michael Agnes, "and choose one word (or phrase) that captures our imagination—whether with its intrinsic linguistic attributes or by the way it expresses how language reflects changing realities."

CrackBerry beat out Pluto—who's demotion to dwarf planet may require changes to many a dictionary— netroots, neuroeconomics, and carbon footprint, among other words and phrases.

Often the word chosen is new and hasn't made it into the dictionary, but comes to the New World College Dictionary editors attention through its daily monitoring of modern English.

"As we do not try to predict the future of language change in English, the choice does not reflect an opinion that the term will eventually be found in the dictionary. In short, it's merely one that made us chuckle, think, reflect, or just shake our heads," said Agnes.

He added that 2,000 such examples come to their attention each month, with a total of 1.9 million currently stored in the New World College Dictionary’s bulging citation files.

The Dangers of BlackBerry Addiction
Not too long ago the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) officially recognized BlackBerry Thumb—that stress related injury to one or both of a user's hands two largest digits due to over-use by any PDA or smartphone (not just a RIM device)—as an official work place malady.

Symptoms of BlackBerry Thumb include pain or numbness in the thumbs (the least dexterous part of the hand) and joints caused by overtaxing due to the overuse of tiny handheld keyboards. Excessive use of these devices can also aggravate underlying arthritis, which is a particular problem for the middle-aged.

A few weeks before the APTA’s recognition of BlackBerry Thumb, Gayle Porter, an associate professor of management at the Rutgers-Camden School of Business, indicated companies could be liable for employees who become addicted to the always-on connectivity enabled by devices like the BlackBerry.

"If people work longer hours for personal enrichment, they assume the risk," according to Porter. "But if an employer manipulates an individual's propensity toward 'workaholism' or technology addiction for the employer's benefit, the legal perspective shifts. When professional advancement, or even survival, seems to depend on 24/7 connectivity, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between choice and manipulation."

Korn/Ferry International, an executive recruitment firm, found at about the same time the Rutgers-Camden study was revealed that 4 out of 5 executives stay connected to work through mobile devices.

A third of respondents said they found PDAs, cell phones, handhelds and the like addictive, although 77 percent of the 2,300 executives surveyed in 75 countries said that mobility enhanced the balance between life and work rather than the other way around, which is contrary to Porter’s findings.