Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Word

So, what's the Word of the Year?

Depends on who you ask. Is it "selfie," "tweaking," or some other silly word?

Well, if you ask Merriam-Webster -- I think she used to appear on Happy Days -- it's "Science!"

Really.

How did they pick that word?
This year's list was compiled by analyzing the top lookups in the online dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com and focusing on the words that showed the greatest increase in lookups this year as compared to last year. The results, based on approximately 100 million lookups a month, show that the words that prompted the most increased interest in 2013 were not new words or words used in headlines, but rather they were the words behind the stories in this year's news.
So, "knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation" is what people wanted to know.

That had to be a shock to the people that thought that "science" meant "Al Gore said it."

Other words on the list?
  • "Cognitive," which, I think, is a wine.
  • "Rapport," which is someone who wears his pants around his knees.
  • "Niche," who said "Out of chaos comes order."
  • "Metaphor." What's a metaphor? To keep cows in.
There are more. You should learn these words. Because words are good things. We use words every day. In fact, this whole things I'm writing uses words. And no words were harmed in the creation of this blog post.

Well, not permanently harmed.

2 comments:

  1. Not only did Al Gore invent the Internet, he invented Science!, too! Now, get off his back, Basil, or he'll blast you with his fiery mouth gases!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A few of the words have been bent by some of us "Punsters" though.

    ReplyDelete

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