PITTSBURGH – The tech slang “app” was voted the 2010 “Word of the Year” Friday by the American Dialect Society, beating out Cookie Monster’s “nom, nom, nom, nom.”

The shortened slang term for a computer or smart phone application was picked by the linguists group 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 Sesame Street character’s sound as he devours his favorite food.

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.

About 120 of the 1,000 conference attendees voted in the “competition” with neither side entirely satisfied.

Critics of “app” said the word was somewhat stale, while proponents said 2010 was the year the word became omnipresent — with one arguing that her elderly mother knows the term, even though the woman doesn’t have any apps.

“Nom” supporters simply liked it’s cheeriness.

“Some years there’s a very clear choice,” said Allan Metcalf, the Dialect Society’s executive secretary. “I think this past year there wasn’t anything clearly dominant. But there’s no question ‘app’ is a very powerful word.”

Though the “Word Of The Year” is perhaps the best-known item on the national conference agenda, it’s hardly the most serious. The program includes discussion of subjects such as school curriculum and raising education standards.