March TOP TWENTY

The list of the most frequently looked-up words at the Merriam-Webster Online Web site in March includes some new faces, including eclectic at No. 6 and conundrum at No. 9. See the entire list and find out who came and who went.

Words in the News: subpoena, indict, mea culpa

Washington, D.C. was abuzz with investigation last month. The political shenanigans helped the words subpoena, indict, and mea culpa make the daily list of most looked-up words for a few days in March. Read on to see the entire bill of particulars.

Happy Birthday: 1860

The Pony Express began its short but memorable run on April 3, 1860. Over the next 18 months, dozens of men — ranging in age from 11 to mid-forties — rode horses over the 2,000-mile route to deliver the mail. The business failed, but it secured a place in history.

More than 240 words first entered print the same year the Pony Express began its brief and romanticized life. We pulled out two dozen, but it's easy enough to create a complete list. Select the Collegiate as your reference, click on Advanced Search, type 1860 into the Date field, and click Search.

Word Profile: perspicacious

Perspicacious is often discussed in usage books along with the similar-looking perspicacity, perspicuous, and perspicuity. The purpose of these discussions is to point out the possibility of confusion when one of these words is substituted for another. If you've ever wondered about this bunch, here's the perspicuous explanation.

New Word Watch

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

*  Bollywood noun [Bombay (Mumbai), traditional center of the Indian film industry + Hollywood] : the motion-picture industry in India

*  monetize verb (new sense) : to utilize (something of value) as a source of profit

*  sudoku noun [Japanese, short for suji wa dokushin ni kagiru "the numerals must remain single" (i.e., the digits can occur only once)] : a puzzle in which several numbers are to be filled into a 9 x 9 grid of squares so that every row, every column, and every 3 x 3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9

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.

Notable and Quotable: Thornton Wilder

Novelist and dramatist Thornton Wilder was born April 17, 1897. The two-time Pulitzer prizewinner had four siblings, all of whom were similarly accomplished. If you do an author search on Wilder in the Unabridged, you'll come up with 34 hits; of those, only 9 belong to Thornton Wilder. (Other Wilders quoted include Wilder Hobson, Robert Wilder, and Thornton's brother, Amos Wilder).

Wondering if words from a favorite author appear as examples of word usage in the dictionary? It's easy to check. Select the Unabridged as your reference source, click on Advanced Search, type the last name of the author in the Authors Quoted field, and click Search.

Just Foolin' Around

April Fool's Day is a fine time to fool around with dozens of fools that have found a home in the dictionary. Ready to get started?

From the Mail Server

Over the past month, editors have fielded questions about the tone of timbre, about whether ideas (as well as people) can be obtuse, and about the thorny question of ye.

In Case You Were Wondering

The anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in April, 1912 inspired the satirical newspaper The Onion to its classic headline: "World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-berg." In case you were wondering, 95 years later, the adjective titanic retains its sense meaning "having great magnitude, force, or power," but it still seems to be the story of the ill-fated vessel that captures our imagination.

Language Links

In honor of National Poetry Month, we present two sites for word (and poetry) lovers. www.rhymezone.com allows would-be poets to type in a word in search of a rhyme (its results are broken out by syllables).

If appreciating already-written poems is more your style, check out the Academy of American Poets' www.poets.org. Poems are searchable by theme, by keyword, by author, by title, or by movement, including among others, Augustan and surrealism.