“Austerity” Merriam-Webster’s Word of 2010
Merriam-Webster has made “austerity” it’s word of the year for 2010.
Topping the list is austerity, defined as “enforced or extreme economy.” Lookups for austerity peaked dramatically several times throughout the year, as people’s attention was drawn to global economic conditions and the debt crises in Europe, but lookups also remained strong throughout the year, reflecting widespread use of the word in many contexts. “Austerity clearly resonates with many people,” said Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large at Merriam-Webster, who monitors online dictionary searches. “We often hear it used in the context of government measures, but we also apply it to our own personal finances and what is sometimes called the new normal.”
I’m so cynical my first response was to wonder whether Pete Peterson had bought off the dictionary company like he did the Washington Post. But M-W says the list is based off of top online dictionary searches. Which is why some of the other words are perhaps more interesting:
4) socialism
5) bigot
7) shellacking
9) dissident
Remember, these reflect actual searches of the online dictionary. That suggests a significant proportion of the people still inclined to actually look things up in the dictionary chose (or needed) to refer to the dictionary to figure out what socialism actually is. And did Obama’s use of the term “shellacking” send journalists and Obama fans to the dictionary to find out just how badly Democrats got whupped at the mid-terms?
Use this thread to predict what words will make up next year’s list.
I’m sort of wondering whether next year will feature “pitchfork”? It seems an appropriate follow-on to austerity.
I’ll put 20 quatloos on “deadbeat”.
Boxturtle (Knows who owns the media)
You can compare these words for usage through the ages (at least 1800 to 2000) here:
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=socialism%2Causterity&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3
Discussion of the larger project that produced this tool here:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2847
Austerity was more popular than socialism until the mid 1880’s. I would love to see this extended through 2010 so that we could see the big jump in socialism from Obama’s election.
Prosperity, with a capital P, seems to have once suffered a crash.
Unprecedented unemployment
Collapse of middle class
Forgotten poor
Creeping police state
Ineffectual President
Venal Congress
Just a few thoughts
Yeah, I nominate “collapse”.
Every day there are articles in the paper about how much money the bankers give themselves in bonuses…bonuses that they were giving themselves before the economy fan hit began to smell so bad and that they continue to do now as every state in the Union slides into financial insolvency…thanks to the banks’ thoughtful help and planning…
Per EW’s tweet:
I’m guessing the most popular Fox viewers search WAS dictionary.
Does a spell checker count? ‘Cause a lot of those folks seem to be able to spell better than their thoughts and ideas would imply.
Boxturtle (Most popular fox viewer search: *insert name* nude)
Then it’s likely the current most popular Fox viewer search is: Haley Barbour nude.
Boy are they in for a surprise!
I’m guessing they went to the dictionary to figure out how whether there’s a K in shellack, like in look and back.
BTW – the Lahore High Court in Pakistan is ordering the DAG there to investigate a missing doctor, believed to have been disappeared by the ISI. See – that’s the difference between Pakistan and here. Over there, the Courts have to order the DAG to do something. Over here, DAG’s like Comey filed Affidavits without even being asked to by the courts.
Of course, the Affidavits were to the effect that we can’t talk about our torture victims publically, but still.
Speaking of things Pakistan, FDL Movie Night is up right now and the topic is the documentary Bhutto with its director Duane Baughman in residence to respond to our questions and comments.
Lahore Court Ruling
1. emmigration
2. New Zealand
3. subsistence farming
There is new trash talk up.
With pragmatic austerity, we call a moritorium on socialist bigots and doppelgangers out to give a shellacking to ebullient but furtive dissidents.
I have found *all* the dictionaries missing the mark wrt definitions of fundamental importance. Went shopping for one about a month ago, and was amazed at how most of ’em shared this incompetency. The word: principle, comes directly to mind (mostly defined in circular terms). Ended up getting latest New Oxford… better then the others IMO, but…
In any event, seeing this post I was curious about definition of: socialism. Here’s snippet from Websters online:
That first one: “any of various economic and political theories”… “any of various”… hmmm.
And then: “ownership AND (my bold) administration”… so socialism requires both? Taken from context as the term is used liberally by wingers these days, one could reasonably conclude that AND should be an OR. TPM has this morning a thing from TEA PARTY NATION founder Justin Phillips advocating getting rid of the “socialist” Methodist Church.
Non-socialist accepted beliefs seem to be narrowing the volume of acceptable thought, it seems to me.
Lastly, however, from that Websters definition was this:
I’m assuming that doesn’t need parsing, particularly in light of current financial collapse… a phenomena incubated in no short supply by Thatcher/Reagan ideas pushed to the limit as cover for private biz malfeasance in saturating fashion, hidden with smoke generated in good part by fear mongering evils of “socialism”.
Beyond that, countries who have best weathered this financial shit storm… China/Singapore, Brazil, Nordic countries… all have elements of more precise definition of socialism which do not meet the AND definition from Websters. Yet, as used by those fear mongering the notion, really seems to me what they don’t want is oversight, accountability, and law enforcement against fraudulent behavior… rest of society be damned.
I find misuse of the language generally, promulgated in huge way through Bush years, among the most corroding threads in US society today. Evident everywhere, w/hugely meaningful distinctions watered down to nothingness through convenient mis-appropriation of words.
I’ve found that the OED is really the only useful dictionary. It’s printed form is fairly impractical ($1,000 and 20 volumes), but the electronic form is quite manageable ($295 a year for the online version, but check to see if your local library subscribes, you might get free access).
Thanks William, appreciate that.
Tax cuts for the rich are double-plus good.
Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky
Based on the current list, next year’s list of looked-up words is bound to include compromise (isn’t it the art of getting what you want while not
pissing offobliterating the other guy?), segregation (= “local leadership”, right?), filibuster (constitutionally-mandated free speech on the floor of congress), and “net neutrality” (the natural free market principle that allows whoever owns the commons to decide how it’s used). Isn’t ownership of the dictionary wonderful?1. Habeas corpus
2. acidification
3. disintegration
Well, a song 45 years ago by the youth popular music group Beatles, entitled **The word, love**, was about the first thing that came to mind, projecting forward to search data aggregated thru the year 2011. But, who would need, or want, to lookup *love*? It*s seemingly more fundamental than political theory words like *dissent*; although *dissent* itself may have wordroots in a genre of child psychology research papers.
On a 2011-as-futuristic note, I would suggest the Large Hadron Collider is about to create some neologisms with its cryogenically enabled, clashing proton beams; however, I fully expect those revelations to require peer review prior to publication in paywall journals, which the New York Times will summarize in abridged form by year*s end. FYI, the LHC already has surpassed the energies available at Brookhaven and Fermilab, proceeding well into teravolt range; so it*s all new territory in particle physics from this interstice forward. Maybe all that will result from the LHC neolexicon is a popularization of the term **gluon**; there*s a word with intrinsic charm.
However, I suspect the Merriam Webster statistics are imprecise, simply opining as I do from the perspective of someone who has had to learn linguistic-variety definitions in order to further my own work. Merriam always was far from the most complete or accurate reference. It is a pity Webster morphed so much. And the various wiki*s tend to be mostly the screed of the latest pirate, about as informative as fable telling, although every situation may be seen as embodiment of its own allegory.
So, I guess my two nominees are: love; and gluon. Such a sparse vocabulary upon which to launch the new decade. If I keep reading emptywheel, I am certain to learn some new words, though, every day.
Doublespeak
Prosperity as suggested above
Socialism will definitely make the top ten
Maybe Social Market Economy in the top 50
Reich
Anarcho-Capitalism
Republican lol
ot: via a Howie Klein tweet, kkkarl jr. has got himself a place on the house judiciary committee:
and the scales of justice sink further out of whack…
By the way, for those of you wondering where in the world we are, I am awaiting an email from Judge Walker’s court containing the big opinion/ruling on damages, attorney fees and punitive damages in al-Haramain. It is pretty important, and we will have it up just as soon as it is received.
OT: START treaty looks like it’s about to clear the Senate under the waved rules! Makes one wonder why this couldn’t have happened before the 2010 election…