Another Katrina-related word showing up mid-month was diaspora. Later, when Rita hit, the related word on the list was exodus. For more on this interesting pair, see this month’s Word History of the Month.

Dick Cheney’s aneurysm and John Roberts’ thoughts on stare decisis also prompted look-ups. For more on aneurysm, and a few other frequently looked-up medical terms, see this month’s Beyond the Dictionary.

Stare decisis was a one-day wonder on September 13, when the confirmation hearings for John Roberts included cross-examining the nominee about his stand on this legal concept. Looking up that legal Latinism in the Unabridged leads to other terms, too: cross-references direct readers first to a comparison with dictum and then to precedent and obiter dictum.

The Roberts hearings also included a spelling challenge. People looking up ideologue (after Roberts told senators that he was not one) but spelling it “idealogue,” as more than a few users did, found out that while ideologues may have ideas, the spelling with an a is a secondary variant. The word is derived from the French word for ideology, and the spelling with an o is preferred.

Conditions in New Orleans led to another spelling challenge. Marshals may enforce some laws, but when the military administers law to civilians, it is called martial law, not marshal law.