October TOP TWENTY

The month of October saw the frenzy of a historic presidential campaign and further developments of the financial crisis in America — and the return of a certain secret agent to the silver screen. Many words being looked up reflect the times and the news, as you can see in our list.

Happy Birthday: 1918

Whether you know it as Veterans' Day, Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, November 11 honors those who have been to war. Ninety years ago World War I ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918. The term Remembrance Day first appeared in print that year. Of the other 203 words that also had their first usage in print the year the Great War ended, a number are associated with battle.

Interested in seeing the full list? Select the Collegiate as the reference, click on Advanced Search, type 1918 in the Date field, and click on Search.

Word History of the Month: socialism

Political accusations about redistributing wealth helped to boost socialism to the #1 spot in October. Socialism first appeared in an English-language publication in 1837, a borrowing of the French word socialisme, applied to the theories espoused by Francois-Marie Charles Fourier, Claude-Henri Saint-Simon, and Richard Owen. The word has both very specific and very broad meanings.

Notable and Quotable: Laurence Sterne

Clergyman and author Laurence Sterne was born Nov. 24, 1713. Of the 42 examples of Sterne's writing cited in the Unabridged, 11 refer to now archaic or obsolete senses. Still more trace back to Sterne's famously digressive novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

Interested in finding words from a favorite author in the dictionary? Select the Unabridged and click on Advanced Search. Type Sterne in the Author field, and click Search.

New Word Watch

Merriam-Webster editors are giving the following words serious consideration for entry in a Merriam-Webster dictionary:

*   acai also açai noun : a small dark purple fleshy berrylike fruit of a tall slender palm that is often used in beverages

*   biodefense noun : means or methods of preventing an attack involving biological weapons

*   fan fiction noun : stories involving popular fictional characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet

Do you have a suggestion for a word we should be watching for? E-mail us at comments@word.com, and we'll tell you what we have on that word so far.

Just Foolin' Around

Once again, albeit appeared on the Top Twenty List. The Middle English albeit literally meant "all though it be." Albeit is one of literally hundreds of words whose etymology includes literally in the story of origin. We started investigating those literal stories and came up with both a few favorites and a method of reviewing the hundreds of dictionary entries.

From the Mail Server

This month, our editors answered e-mail questions galore, including one about the spelling of e-mail, another about the function of galore, and a third about the provenance of rock 'n' roll.

Word Profile

Blame it on the election or maybe it's the upcoming holiday season, but cantankerous hit the Top Twenty list of most looked-up words in October.

According to the Unabridged, cantankerous has two distinct senses, one applied to people ("marked by ill humor, irritability, and determination to disagree") and the other to animals or things ("difficult or irritating to deal with or use"). If that parsing leaves you cantankerous, stick to the more succinct definition found in the Collegiate.

There are many gradations of irritability, and here's a brief primer of synonyms for cantankerous.