February 2008

January TOP TWENTY

It shouldn't come as a surprise by now that the presidential primaries are making lots of people curious — and not just about the candidates, but about political language, too. Caucus shot all the way up to the most looked-up word for the month that began with Iowa's contest. We offer you more information about caucus in this month's Words in the News. Meanwhile, here's January's Top Twenty.

  1. caucus
  2. cantankerous
  3. apathetic
  4. affect
  5. effect
  6. conundrum
  7. quixotic
  8. love
  9. appreciate
  10. integrity
 
  1. whether
  2. pretentious
  3. pugnacious
  4. hypocrite
  5. awkward
  6. eclectic
  7. obsequious
  8. guarantee
  9. vituperation
  10. albeit

We have seen consistent interest in awkward, hypocrite, and pretentious in recent months. Obsequious and integrity are among the words with classical roots that we see nearly every month, while awkward, albeit, and quixotic have been in and out of the top words since at least last summer. Vituperation is a relative newcomer — could it be because of election-year arguments? At any rate, there's good money on seeing love — a word looked up frequently in any given month — rise in standing in the list for February, the month of Valentine's Day. Stay tuned.


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