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November 2005October's TOP TWENTYConcerns about a future outbreak of avian flu propelled pandemic and epidemic to the top of the list of the most frequently looked up words on Merriam-Webster Online. In fact, pandemic became one of those rare words (last month’s refugee was another) to be looked up more often than effect, the usual top-spot holder. See the full list of October's Top Twenty to find out what other new words made the list, and which ones dropped off. The full list of the most frequently looked-up words on the Merriam-Webster Online Web site for the month is as follows: 1. pandemic All of the hurricane-related terms that were so frequently looked up in September have now slipped off the list, as have culture, rhetoric, and hypothesis. Culture and rhetoric are usually regulars on this list when school is in session, so we predict their return when term papers start being written in December. October was a big month for the Greeks, or at least words with Greek roots, as hubris, dichotomy, and esoteric all moved up in popularity to join the Top Twenty. And, for those keeping track, blog slipped further in October, from No. 14 in September to No. 17 this month. It is at least possible at this point to foresee a month when blog, a fixture on this list for more than a year, is no longer in the Top Twenty. |