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'Surreal' trumps 'fascism' as Merriam-Webster's 2016 word of the year
Source: The Guardian
'Surreal' trumps 'fascism' as Merriam-Webster's 2016 word of the year
• Dictionary publisher had appealed for readers to stop rise of ‘fascism’
• Editor: ‘Surreal is one of the words most searched after tragedy’
Martin Pengelly
Monday 19 December 2016 11.00 GMT
Merriam-Webster has succeeded in its attempt to stop “fascism” being named its word of the year: the dictionary publisher’s word of 2016 is “surreal”.
“Spikes of interest in a word are usually triggered by a single event,” said Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster. “So what’s truly remarkable this year about ‘surreal’ is that so many different stories led people to look it up.
“Historically, ‘surreal’ has been one of the words most searched after tragedy, most notably in the days following 9/11. But it was associated with a wide variety of stories this year.”
Merriam-Webster determines the popularity of words in terms of increases in look-ups in total volume and year on year.
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• Dictionary publisher had appealed for readers to stop rise of ‘fascism’
• Editor: ‘Surreal is one of the words most searched after tragedy’
Martin Pengelly
Monday 19 December 2016 11.00 GMT
Merriam-Webster has succeeded in its attempt to stop “fascism” being named its word of the year: the dictionary publisher’s word of 2016 is “surreal”.
“Spikes of interest in a word are usually triggered by a single event,” said Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster. “So what’s truly remarkable this year about ‘surreal’ is that so many different stories led people to look it up.
“Historically, ‘surreal’ has been one of the words most searched after tragedy, most notably in the days following 9/11. But it was associated with a wide variety of stories this year.”
Merriam-Webster determines the popularity of words in terms of increases in look-ups in total volume and year on year.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/19/surreal-trump-fascism-merriam-webster-2016-word-of-the-year