The 'Tase' Age

By SARA LIPKA

Higher education has its controversies; not often do they leave their mark on the English language. But two recent campus scandals have helped popularize a new verb, "to tase," a runner-up to the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2007 Word of the Year.

The hip lexicographers define the term (and its variant, spelled with a "z") as "to stun with a...