SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – What do an American president, a cartoon character and a pop singer have in common? They each left millions of people trying to figure out what they were talking about this year.
When President Bush said his warrantless surveillance program created a “kerfuffle” in the press and Dilbert’s canine companion proclaimed oil to be a “fungible” commodity, the confused consulted Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Maybe it was just innocent curiosity that sent so many to look up “promiscuous” when Nelly Furtado’s album with the sexy title soared up the Billboard charts.
The linguistic “trifecta” (another semantic stumper when the horse Barbaro seemed a good bet as a Triple Crown winner), made for some of the most looked-up words this year on Merriam-Webster’s Web site.
But unlike 2005, when “integrity” clearly topped the dictionary publisher’s Internet lookups, this year hasn’t been marked by one word that’s held the public’s interest for more than a few weeks.
Because of that, Merriam-Webster is giving people until Dec. 4 to vote online for the one word they think best sums up 2006. With 100 million visitors to its Web site this year, the Springfield-based company is expecting to get plenty of feedback.
“The word that’s on everyone’s mind might not be one that you have to look up,” said John Morse, Merriam-Webster’s president. “I’m fully expecting to be surprised by whatever it is.”
Still, there’s a solid link between a pop culture moment or current event and the public’s rush to understand the language it involved.
When Bush used “kerfuffle” in March to describe a disturbance or fuss, there was a huge spike in the number of people searching for a definition, Morse said, though he did not have an exact number.
Dogbert’s attempt at explaining the tricky “fungible” – something that can have one part equally replaced by another part – in a Dilbert comic published in February, about 25,000 people looked up the word that month.
And with the summer release of Furtado’s album “Promiscuous,” about 120,000 people between June and August found the exact definitions for the word: 1. composed of all sorts of persons or things; 2. not restricted to one class, sort, or person; 3. not restricted to one sexual partner.
The “promiscuous” searches rivaled the same number of those for “effect,” which is one of the most commonly looked up words every year.
Other words associated with news headlines – like “coup” and “thwart” – were frequently looked up when Thailand’s prime minister was overthrown in September and British authorities blocked a terrorist plot to destroy U.S.-bound commercial planes in August.
“People get very worried about wrong language, and they become very concerned about using the right word and knowing exactly what it means,” said Peter Elbow, a retired University of Massachusetts English professor and author of “Everyone Can Write” and “Writing With Power.”
“Some words have a sense of complexity or magic that people want to understand,” he said. “For many people, the dictionary has enormous authority.”
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On the Net: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
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